Coffee Break English season one, episode seven.
Hello everyone and welcome to Coffee Break English.
I'm Josie. And I'm Mark.
And we are very happy to be here today.
Josie, I'm excited today.
Why? Why are you excited, Mark?
Because we're talking about haggis, a very Scottish topic.
Yes. We are off to our home country of Scotland.
We're learning about haggis and we're also learning about the present perfect tense.
Excellent. So we are going to be joined today by Monica, who is going to be reading our text for us.
Great. Let's listen to Monica.
Hi, Mark. Hi, Josie.
Let's find out more about a well -known Scottish dish.
Have you ever heard of haggis?
If you haven't, it's not surprising.
It's Scotland's national dish, but there are some Scottish people who have never eaten it.
This is because its ingredients are quite unusual.
It is a big round pudding made from a sheep's stomach and filled with a sheep's heart, lungs and liver, as well as onion, oats and spices.
If that doesn't sound good to you, some recipes have recently changed to use an artificial stomach instead of a real one with chicken or beef inside.
Traditionally, people eat haggis at least once a year on the 25th of January.
This is the date when we celebrate the birth of Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns.
And the event is called a Burns supper.
At a Burns supper, someone usually performs a poem by Robert Burns called Address to a Haggis.
That's right. It's a poem about haggis.
Most Scottish people have been to a Burns supper, and most children have learned some poems by Robert Burns at school.
In recent years, haggis hasn't stayed the same because chefs have experimented with it in lots of different ways.
They have made vegetarian and vegan haggis, and some restaurants have even tried haggis pizza and haggis sushi.
The Scots like to have fun with haggis, and many people have tried to convince tourists that the haggis is an animal.
If you search on the internet, you can find pictures of a wild haggis, and there is even a fake wild haggis in a museum in Glasgow.
So, if you visit Scotland, maybe you'll be brave enough to taste this traditional Scottish dish.
Josie, do you like haggis?
Well, I have never eaten haggis, Mark, because I don't eat meat.
So I have eaten vegetarian haggis, which is delicious.
What about you? Do you like haggis?
Well, I have to admit that, yes, I do really like haggis.
Haggis with potatoes and turnip, or as we say in Scotland, haggis with nips and tatties.
Yep, that's the traditional way to eat it, isn't it?
Indeed. Okay, let's go back through the text now.
Have you ever heard of haggis?
Good. So this question, have you ever heard?
This is a question in the present perfect tense.
If I ask you this question, Mark, what's your answer?
Have you ever heard of haggis?
Yes, I have heard of haggis.
Good. So I have heard, this is the present perfect, we use the present perfect to talk about something that happened in the past, but we don't say exactly when it happened.
So we use it to talk about our life experiences sometimes.
Okay, can we look at some examples, Josie?
Good idea. So, Mark, have you ever visited the Grand Canyon?
Yes, I have visited the Grand Canyon.
Yes, you told us in the previous episode about that.
And remind me, have you ever visited the Grand Canyon?
No, I haven't visited the Grand Canyon.
Okay, so the negative form, I haven't visited.
That's right. So to make the present perfect, we take the verb have or in the third person, has, and we add the past participle.
So the past participle is the third form of the verb.
For example, visit, the infinitive, visited, the past simple, and visited, the past participle.
But some verbs have a different simple past and past participle form.
That's right. If the verb is irregular, it has a different past simple and past participle.
So for example, do, infinitive, did, past simple, and done, past participle.
Good. Okay, let's continue with the text.
Okay, so have you ever heard of hicus?
If you haven't, it's not surprising.
Good, so if you haven't, this haven't refers to have you ever.
It's using this have, this auxiliary helping verb.
Okay, so if you've not heard of hicus, it's not surprising.
It's not a big surprise because it's Scotland's national dish, but there are some Scottish people who have never eaten it.
Yes, so it's Scotland's national dish.
It's a traditional food from Scotland, but some Scottish people have never eaten it.
This is the present perfect in the negative form.
We could say some Scottish people who haven't eaten it, but when we use never, it emphasizes.
Never in my entire life, I have never eaten it.
Okay, and why is this?
It's because its ingredients are quite unusual.
It is a big round pudding made from a sheep's stomach and filled with a sheep's heart, lungs, and liver.
As well as onion, oats, and spices.
Lots of vocabulary there.
Yes, lots of words to talk about.
So it's ingredients.
The things that are in haggis are quite unusual.
They are quite strange.
They're not normally in food.
It is a big round pudding, round like a circle is round.
What's a pudding, Mark?
A pudding is in the UK traditionally what you eat after a meal, like dessert, a sweet dish.
But here the pudding refers to the sort of sausage nature of this dish.
That's right. That's right.
Pudding kind of has a double meaning.
In this case, haggis is definitely not something you eat for dessert.
So haggis is made from a sheep's stomach.
Our stomach is the place where our food goes when we eat it to be digested.
And what's unusual about the pronunciation of stomach, Mark?
Well, this word ends with CH.
And that's normally pronounced CH like church or chicken.
But here it's stomach, a hard C sound.
That's right. So watch out for that word.
So a haggis is filled with a sheep's heart.
Our heart is the organ in our bodies, which sends the blood around our body.
A sheep's heart, a sheep's lungs.
What are lungs? So the lungs are the organs which help you to breathe.
That's right. And a sheep's liver.
The liver cleans the blood in the body.
Good. So lots of body parts of a sheep.
But there are other things too, as well as onion, oats, and spices.
So oats. Oats are a grain which sometimes you give to animals as food.
And I like to eat oats in muesli for my breakfast.
Okay. If that doesn't sound good to you, some recipes have recently changed to use an artificial stomach instead of a real one with chicken or beef inside.
Yeah. So here's another example of the present perfect.
Some recipes have recently changed.
This is something which happened in the past.
But we don't say exactly when it happened.
We just say it happened recently.
So when you see the word recently, sometimes this tells you that you should use the present perfect.
Have recently changed.
Okay. What would an artificial stomach be?
So if something's artificial, it is not real.
It is fake. For example, we could have artificial flowers, which are not real flowers.
Maybe they're made from plastic.
Okay. Traditionally, people eat haggis at least once a year on the 25th of January.
So people eat haggis at least once a year.
At least means a minimum of.
That's right. So most people would eat haggis definitely once a year and perhaps more often.
That's right. Okay.
And this date, the 25th of January, is when we celebrate the birth of Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns.
And the event is called a Burns supper.
Yes. So we celebrate, we mark the importance of this day.
So if you celebrate something, maybe you have a party or a nice dinner, but we celebrate the birth of Scotland's most famous poet.
That's right. We celebrate the day when Robert Burns was born, the birth of Robert Burns.
That's right. And this event is called a Burns supper.
So supper is another word for dinner, really.
At a Burns supper, someone usually performs a poem by Robert Burns called address to a haggis.
Good. So someone stands up and they say this poem in front of everyone else.
And yes, this is a poem about haggis, about the dish, the national dish.
Yes. That's how important haggis is in Scotland.
It has its own poem.
Do you know the poem, Josie?
I don't know this poem.
I think when I was at school, I learned it, but I have forgotten it completely.
Do you know it, Mark?
I know a little bit of the poem.
It's a poem in Scots.
So Scots is a national language in Scotland and it's different from English.
So don't worry if you don't understand any of this.
Fear for your honest, son's face.
Great chieftain of the Pudding race.
Abund them all ye tak yer place.
Pinch, tripe, or therm.
We were ye worthy of a grace as langs my arm.
Wow, well done. It's a long time since I've said that poem.
I'm sure. I think we might need to start a podcast called Coffee Break Scots for people to understand this.
I think so too. But most Scottish people have been to a Burns supper.
And most children have learned some poems by Robert Burns at school, just like we did.
Yes, and here we have two more examples of the present perfect as well.
So most Scottish people have been to a Burns supper, but we don't say when.
Sometime in their lives.
And most children have learned some poems.
Josie, bean is an interesting verb.
It's a past participle of which verb?
Good question. Bean is the past participle of be and of go.
So for example, I could say, this week I have been happy.
And that's using the verb be.
But in this case, most people have been to a Burns supper.
This is the verb go.
But without confusing things too much, there's also another past participle of to go.
There is, yes. To go has two past participles, bean and gone.
So what's the difference between bean and gone?
Well, it depends on where you are when you use these past participles.
For example, I've been to the supermarket.
If I say this phrase, I went there, I bought what I needed and I returned home.
And now I'm at home telling you, I've been to the supermarket.
But if I phone you while you're at the supermarket, buying your haggis and I don't know where you are, then I would say, where are you, Josie?
And I would say, I've gone to the supermarket.
Because you're still there.
Exactly. I use gone because I'm at the supermarket at the time that I'm speaking.
That's very, very tricky, I think.
It is a little difficult, yes.
Basically, we use been when you are not in the place you're talking about.
And we use gone when you are in the place that you're talking about.
Okay. Now, in this sentence, we also heard, most children have learned some poems by Robert Burns at school.
That's right. So learned is the past participle of learn.
And there are two past participles, again, for the verb learn.
Learned and learned.
And is there a difference?
There's no difference in meaning.
You will be happy to know.
But it's more common in American English to use learned with ED.
And in British English, it's more common to use learnt.
Good. Okay. We have learned a lot already in this episode.
But we're going to take a short break and maybe we'll eat some haggis.
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Okay, welcome back.
Did you have any haggis in the break, Josie?
I didn't have time to make any haggis.
Maybe later. Perhaps later.
Okay, let's continue with our text.
In recent years, haggis hasn't stayed the same because chefs have experimented with it in lots of different ways.
Good. So we have two examples of the present perfect and two regular past participles.
Hasn't stayed. Have experimented.
Just be careful. For hasn't stayed, we use has not instead of have not because haggis is the third person.
It's it. So has instead of have.
Let's continue. Okay.
They have made vegetarian and vegan haggis.
And some restaurants have even tried haggis pizza and haggis sushi.
Yes, so there are lots of different types of haggis that you can have vegetarian and vegan haggis with no meat, which is delicious.
I have to say. Okay.
But I have to say that haggis pizza and haggis sushi for me, don't seem quite as delicious.
Yes, I agree with you.
But have you ever tried haggis pizza or haggis sushi?
No, I like to be traditional with my haggis.
You like to have your haggis, your potatoes and your turnips.
That's right. Okay.
The Scots like to have fun with haggis, and many people have tried to convince tourists that the haggis is an animal.
Yes. So people have tried to convince tourists to make tourists believe that that haggis is an animal.
And if you search on the internet, you can find pictures of a wild haggis.
And there's even a fake wild haggis in the museum in Glasgow.
Yes. So a wild haggis, this means the animal, the haggis that lives in the wild.
It doesn't live in a zoo or in a home as a pet, for example.
I'm laughing because this is a very, very popular story that Scottish people like to tell.
We love to, well, have fun with tourists.
And yes, there is a fake wild haggis in a museum in Glasgow.
Fake is the same as artificial, which we saw earlier in the text.
And this fake wild haggis is very funny.
Good. So if you visit Scotland, maybe you'll be brave enough to taste this traditional Scottish dish.
Yes, maybe you'll be brave enough.
Maybe you'll have enough courage to taste haggis.
Excellent. I would definitely recommend it.
Let's listen again to the whole text now.
Have you ever heard of haggis?
If you haven't, it's not surprising.
It's Scotland's national dish, but there are some Scottish people who have never eaten it.
This is because its ingredients are quite unusual.
It is a big round pudding made from a sheep's stomach and filled with a sheep's heart, lungs and liver, as well as onion, oats and spices.
If that doesn't sound good to you, some recipes have recently changed to use an artificial stomach instead of a real one with chicken or beef inside.
Traditionally, people eat haggis at least once a year on the 25th of January.
This is the date when we celebrate the birth of Scotland's most famous poet, Robert Burns, and the event is called a Burn's Supper.
At a Burn's Supper, someone usually performs a poem by Robert Burns called Addressed to a Haggis.
That's right, it's a poem about haggis.
Most Scottish people have been to a Burn's Supper, and most children have learned some poems by Robert Burns at school.
In recent years, haggis hasn't stayed the same, because chefs have experimented with it in lots of different ways.
They have made vegetarian and vegan haggis, and some restaurants have even tried haggis pizza and haggis sushi.
The Scots like to have fun with haggis, and many people have tried to convince tourists that the haggis is an animal.
If you search on the internet, you can find pictures of a wild haggis, and there is even a fake wild haggis in a museum in Glasgow.
So, if you visit Scotland, maybe you'll be brave enough to taste this traditional Scottish dish.
Okay, that is where we're going to leave this episode.
If you would like to get more out of the episode and use our lesson notes, our video version, our vocabulary, and the bonus audio materials, then you can find all of that at coffeebreakacademy .com.
That's right, Mark, and if you'd like to practice your English, you can also do so on social media.
Just search for Coffee Break English on Facebook and on Instagram, where we post regular language challenges and cultural information.
And this week, we'll be asking you about your life experiences using the present perfect.
Excellent. Okay, next time we are heading to Canada to talk about sport.
Until then, thank you and goodbye.
See you soon! You have been listening to a Coffee Break Language's production for the Radiolingua Network.
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