Hey everyone and welcome back to another episode of the Understandable English Podcast.
My name is Oliver and today we are going to talk about a few different things.
So I have first an announcement or a bit of news, and then we are going to talk about this month, so September, and the changes that happen in September with the changing seasons.
Okay, so first some news.
If you listen to this podcast on Spotify, you might have noticed that there are some new subscriber only episodes.
So for almost four years, I have done this podcast completely for free.
And I will always do the podcast for free.
So these weekly episodes will continue and nothing will change.
I want them to be free for English learners forever.
But what I am starting to help support and grow the podcast is a subscription.
So a very small subscription to help me to focus more on the podcast and on growing the project.
So the YouTube channel and everything around it.
It's completely optional.
It is just to help me and to support.
But what you get whenever you do support.
With the price of a coffee every month, it will get you one bonus episode of the podcast every single week.
So that is a special subscriber only episode every single week for extra learning.
And you can also, on those episodes, ask me questions.
So you can ask me questions and I will answer them in another episode of the podcast, um of the subscribers only podcast and you'll also get access to episodes a little bit earlier than everyone else um, straight away.
So extra episodes of the podcast um question and answers you can ask me and early access to new episodes.
If you like the sound of that and you want to help support the podcast and myself, then you can click the link in the description below and sign up for this through Spotify or on Spotify.
You can click one of those episodes and also sign up.
Okay, that's everything.
That's the news with that.
Oh, and also I will mention I'm still making those easy English vlogs on YouTube.
So they're completely free, of course, just YouTube videos.
And it's the same style as this podcast.
So I make real life videos, but speaking slowly in English.
The link is also in the description below.
Okay, now let's go back to today's topic and that is September and the changing of the seasons.
So September is a month of change and transition.
Transition is when something changes.
This is because the seasons are changing from summer to autumn.
So to the autumn season.
And one key event that is very important is called the autumnal equinox.
Now, that sounds very complicated and fancy.
Don't worry.
What the autumnal equinox is is that it happens around September 22nd or the 23rd of September in the north of the world.
It is just the day that marks or notes the end of summer and the beginning of autumn.
And during this day, this special day, there is almost the equal amount of daylight and also darkness, for example, 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness.
So it's equal light and equal dark, and from this point onwards the days get shorter and the darkness becomes longer.
So there's more dark during the rest of the year And of course, in many countries not every country, but particularly in the north of the world the days become colder as well.
So much, much colder.
Now, I will make a separate episode about autumn and different things in autumn.
But of course I can't mention the changing of seasons without talking about how the leaves change colour on the trees.
So this is a very strong sign that the season is changing and that there is a transition happening.
So a change, a transition is a change as the season changes.
And the leaves color or the color of the leaves is a really good visual symbol of this.
So very clear thing that you can see to show this change.
Okay.
So I think September is also such a month of change because for many people in our societies, in our countries, it is the start of something.
So if you're in education, it is for many the, the month and the time when you start back to school or university.
Lots of students are, you know, seeing this as the start of a new year, or maybe a new school or a new course, And it marks a change, a beginning of a new chapter or part of their life.
Of course this can affect parents too, because for them, their children are going back to school and maybe they had some holidays in the summertime and we think OK, now we're back to normal routine, back to work, back to school and getting into the darker, shorter days with less relaxing time.
For me, I quite like September.
I think it's quite a nice month.
Often we have a little bit nicer weather here, because in summertime in Northern Ireland it can be quite wet at times.
The weather can change a lot and September usually seems to be a nicer month for some reason.
I also like when I start to see the Halloween stuff, and Even today in the supermarket I saw some Christmas items.
Isn't that crazy?
On the 22nd of September, they are already selling Christmas items in shops.
That's crazy.
I also love seeing the change in seasons in the plants and the trees and the nature all around.
In Northern Ireland we have some very beautiful forests and parks and it's so nice to be able to watch and walk and see all of the different beautiful colours and leaves and everything all around.
It's so pretty.
Let me know in the comments below what your favorite part of maybe the changing seasons is.
Or if you like September, do you like September?
Let me know in the comments.
Of course I understand that a lot of people don't like this time of year because they notice that the days are getting shorter and they think, oh no, winter is coming and it's going to be cold and dark and no longer nice summer or springtime.
But i think it's important to focus on the positives, the nice parts.
Think of the nice holidays that are coming, like halloween or christmas, the christmas and winter foods, hot chocolate, the nice colours of the leaves and all of those fun and happy times that come with the changing of the seasons.
But of course we all have different favourite times and months of the year, so I'm not trying to convince you or make you think something.
But I hope you have an amazing rest of September and autumn.
So thank you very much for listening.
Remember to check out those links in the description below.
And thank you so much for listening and for supporting this podcast.
Have a fantastic day.
Goodbye.
