This is the Let's Master English podcast, and I'm your host, Coach Shane.
Hello everybody, welcome back to the Let's Master English podcast, episode number 134.
For the week of August 18th through August 24th.
Yeah. How's your Monday going? Happy Monday to you. uh this podcast as always is filled with great stuff we got news stories uh challenge a speaking challenge Great songs if you are a member.
Are you a member? It's really easy. Just go to school.com slash LME.
I'll spell it. S-K-O-O-L dot com slash L-M-E. and then join, okay?
If you're listening to this in August of 2025, joining my community is free okay after that we're gonna charge we're not charging much like i don't know two dollars maybe five dollars it'll be very little The reason we're charging is to reduce the number of spam because some people...
If something's free, you always get these weird people who come in and then try to sell something.
It's kind of crazy. So I just don't like that.
And we actually offer a lot of great things, including live classes that you can join and ask questions, which is really cool.
But anyway, school.com slash LME. Our scripts are there.
The full version of the podcast is there.
No commercials. Sometimes in some countries they have commercials on my podcast, but not in our community.
Speaking of the podcast, Igor Sen and Felix Fong both asked me, hey, Coach Shane, where are the scripts?
From the old podcasts I would like to see the news stories Read the news stories Yeah Unfortunately, I don't have them.
We started making Let's Master English podcast 12 years ago.
Can you believe that? I know. I'm averaging 10 a year, which is too slow.
Now we're doing one a week, which is good.
But yeah, so the old podcasts, I do not have scripts for.
We could use AI and make a script that's not too difficult.
Personally... I don't have the time, but I do have staff.
So if a lot of people want that, maybe we'll do it But it depends on the number of people who actually want it.
So, so far only two guys, Igor and Felix.
Come on, Igor. Just two guys? Forget it.
I'm not doing it. Just teasing, guys. But if there's maybe 300 people that want it, then we can do it.
Okay, so yeah, thank you very much though.
And you can use AI too. It's not difficult.
You can use AI, even something like Slack.
Do you guys know Slack? S L A C K. It's an app that we use for my business.
You can put a video up there in Slack and it will create transcripts.
They make mistakes sometimes, but it's pretty good.
So anyway... I don't have those and I apologize, but thank you very much for asking and it's definitely something we'll consider doing, okay?
All right. Well, let's go ahead and get into the podcast.
We've got three news stories coming up. If you're a member, you're going to listen to such a nice song.
This is a request from Coach Mila. Every Friday, she hosts a welcome... live stream.
It's called LME Navi, Let's Master English Navigator.
And in that live stream, you can join it and ask questions about your class or what to do in our community, and she'll answer everybody.
It's a really, really wonderful thing. And her request song is actually an old song.
And it's called Happy Together. So yeah, you, me, we're all happy together, right?
Enjoy. On Sunday, a mass shooting at Taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn, New York left three people dead and eight injured.
The NYPD says multiple gunmen opened fire after a dispute inside the crowded club.
Police found 36 shell casings and are checking cameras for clues.
No arrests yet, but they're asking for tips.
11 Madison Park, a fancy New York restaurant, said bye-bye. to its vegan-only menu last week after three years of plant-based dishes.
They're bringing back meat! Customers missed their juicy steaks and chefs wanted more fun in the kitchen.
Don't worry, veggie lovers, some vegan options will stay.
And finally, scientists say humans in the future could be hairless And missing four body parts, the tailbone, wisdom teeth, the appendix, and little toes.
Why? Evolution might decide we don't need them anymore.
Modern diets and shoes make these parts less useful.
So in 1,000 years, we might look like bald, foretold aliens.
Don't panic. Your toes are safe for now.
Wow, crazy stories. A couple of New York stories and a weird story there.
Ooh, yeah, New York City. New York, New York, big city of dreams, but everything in New York ain't always what it seems.
Too much, too many people. You know, I'll be honest.
I live in America. I love the United States.
You know, I love my country. But... Big cities in America, I don't like them.
I lived in Chicago. I lived in Las Vegas.
I lived in LA. I lived in New York. And...
I didn't like any of them. I lived in San Diego.
I liked it. I've been to Boston. These days I've been to Boston a lot of times.
I like Boston. But New York – Chicago was the worst for me.
I'm serious, guys. I never felt safe in Chicago.
And even parts of Las Vegas, there were parts.
I mean, there were Walmarts in Las Vegas. that I didn't feel safe, okay?
Big cities in America, I don't know. Too much stress, too much anger, I think.
And, you know, it's funny, in the big cities...
You can't have guns, right? The regular people.
In America, you can have guns. But in most of the big cities, you can't have guns.
So the good people like you and I, we don't have guns.
But the bad guys do. The bad guys do. And they use them.
So it's kind of crazy. I live in the country, right?
Very country where I live. I look out my windows.
I see nothing but trees. I have guns. Actually, I know all of my neighbors have guns.
In fact, one of my neighbors makes guns.
He makes rifles. We have zero crime in our area.
There's none. There's no crime in our area.
Very safe. People don't lock their doors.
Their cars are open outside. Children leave their toys around.
It's very very safe. But this is just terrible.
New York City, another mass shooting. How scary is that?
Can you imagine you're a mom or a dad and your son or daughter lives in New York?
Maybe they're a student. and you hear a story like this, oh my God, you're gonna go crazy.
What happened on Sunday, yesterday? A mass shooting.
That means a shooting where many people were shot.
Where? At Taste of the City Lounge. It sounds like a bar where they sell alcohol.
So taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn, New York.
So New York City is made up of five boroughs And I think everybody knows the borough Manhattan And then there's Queens.
There is Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Staten Island.
These are the five boroughs of New York City.
Brooklyn. Brooklyn, New York. On Sunday, a mass shooting at Taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn, New York, left three people dead and eight injured.
Just terrible. The NYPD, New York Police Department, says multiple gunmen, it wasn't just one guy, it was several guys, Opened fire.
After a dispute. after an argument, after a fight inside the crowded club.
Ah, it was a club, a nightclub, people dancing and drinking.
So I'm guessing it was maybe gang related, G-A-N-G, gang related, probably.
Yeah. Police found 36 shell casings. That means 36 bullets were fired. bullet is what flies through the air and hurts people.
The shell casings, that's the brass container of the bullet.
Do you understand? Shell, S-H-E-L-L, casing, C-A-S-I-N-G.
In this case, 36 shell casings. So these guys shot their weapons at least 36 times.
Police found 36 shell casings and are checking cameras for clues.
No arrests yet. No bad guys have been caught.
But they're asking for tips. Scary, scary.
When I was... I used to go to clubs. I'm sure maybe you did too when I was much younger, in my 20s.
Right. Boy, I'm glad I don't live in New York City, and I was like 25 years old in New York City.
You might go to one of these places, and who knows what can happen?
It's just crazy. And once again, it's just my opinion, but it's my experience too.
New York City... Memphis, Tennessee. Minneapolis nowadays.
I went to the University of Minnesota in Minneapolis.
Near the university, I wouldn't go out. Chicago, Las Vegas...
And there are many parts of Las Vegas that are great.
I mean, Las Vegas, the strip with all the casinos...
Very safe. Cameras everywhere. Police everywhere.
It's very nice. But outside of that area, Las Vegas can be dangerous.
Dangerous Los Angeles. Los Angeles isn't that bad regarding safety.
I mean, there are dangerous parts of LA, but even myself, a little white guy, When I was younger, I lived in LA and I worked in East LA, which is very non-white.
A lot of Hispanics and a lot of tough guys and not a lot of white guys.
But this is back in the 90s, early 90s. I remember walking into, I was working at a school.
I was a plumber, believe it or not. not.
And at lunchtime, I left the school and I went to a restaurant because I saw a taco restaurant.
So I figured that would be a good place for lunch.
And I remember walking from the school to the restaurant and I remember there were guys sitting outside their house, not doing anything, just watching me.
Young guys, you know? Tough-looking guys just watching me.
What's this gringo doing? But they never bothered me.
They never said anything. It was no problem.
Did I feel nervous? Yeah. Yes, I did. But I had zero problems.
Was I lucky? I don't know. I don't know if I was lucky.
Might have been a very nice neighborhood, right?
But I don't think it was. It was a tough part of town.
But once again, Los Angeles, I never had a problem.
New York, yeah. I had problems Chicago I would not fill my car with gas in downtown Chicago If I was driving my car into downtown Chicago, I would always look at how much gas I had. and make sure I had a full tank.
There is no way I would go to a gas station in downtown Chicago.
I'm not joking. It is too dangerous. But for me, my sister lived in downtown Chicago.
She said, I love it. Not me. But maybe I'm just, you know, weak.
Anyway, this happened in New York City. It's a tragedy.
So... Yeah, be careful in America's big cities.
Be careful. Always watch where you're going.
Make sure people know where you're going.
The next story also takes place in New York, but this is a much nicer story.
11 Madison Park. And I'm guessing that might be kind of an address.
It's the name of a restaurant, a fancy New York restaurant.
Fancy means expensive, right? Expensive.
So this restaurant said bye-bye to its vegan-only menu last week.
So up until last week, they had a menu But everything was vegan.
Do you know vegan? V-E-G-A-N Vegan means vegetarian, but 100% vegetarian.
Because sometimes vegetarian people will eat cheese.
Sometimes vegetarian people will have an egg a little bit You know, I mean, sometimes vegetarians, they don't eat meat, right?
But they'll drink milk or eat cheese or ice cream.
Yeah, many vegetarians are like that. But vegans knew nothing from the animal.
Nothing. Everything is plant-based. Everything must come from plants or insects.
Yeah, I said it. Bugs. Vegans. There are vegans that eat bugs.
You might as well just be an animal. I don't understand that.
I don't understand. Anyway, this restaurant had a vegan only menu and last week they said bye bye, no more.
No more vegan only. After three years of plant-based dishes, they're bringing back meat.
Woo! Bring back the meat, hamburgers and steaks and chicken and what else?
Fish, pork, maybe some pork. What about you?
Are you a vegan? I absolutely am not. However, my wife, when we lived in Chicago actually, my wife took me to a vegan bakery.
Yeah, bakery, a vegan bakery. And she gave me, she bought me a sandwich.
And I'm like, I'm going to hate this sandwich.
This is going to be terrible. I don't like vegans, so no, I don't want the sandwich.
I ate the sandwich. Oh it was really good I was surprised But they didn't say it's like a fake meat sandwich.
It was just a vegetable sandwich, but it was really good.
But this place was vegan only, and now they're bringing back the meat.
Why customers missed their juicy steaks.
Do you like steak? I do. and chefs, C-H-E-F-S, professional cooks.
Chefs wanted more fun in the kitchen. there you go don't worry veggie lovers veggie v-e-g-g-i-e Vegetable.
Do you like veggies? What is your favorite veggie?
I like veggies. I really love veggies, but I also love meat.
And if I have to choose veggies or meat, I'll choose meat.
But I do love veggies. Don't worry, veggie lovers.
Some vegan options will stay. Well, that's good.
Yeah. My wife sometimes eats vegan. That's cool.
I don't bother her. Not me. And she knows I'm not going to.
She knows I'm not going to. What about you?
Do you sometimes eat vegan intentionally?
If you go to a restaurant, do you look for a vegan meal or a vegetarian meal?
Some people do. Me, if I see a vegan meal or a vegetarian meal, I absolutely will not order it.
Okay, let's go to our final story. This is weird.
Scientists say humans in the future could be hairless.
That sounds horrible. Now, if you guys know me, if you guys see like the back of my head, listen to this.
I'll make the sounds. This is a good sound.
Can you hear that? I don't know if you can hear that.
That was a good sound. This is a bad sound.
Can you hear that difference? Both times I'm hitting my head.
The first time I'm hitting my head where I have hair.
So it's... But the second time I'm hitting my head, it's like slap, slap, slap, slap, because at the top of my head, I have no hair.
I'm bald. It's terrible. It's absolutely horrible.
I'm hairless at the very top of my head.
But I have hair on my arms, and I got a mustache, and on the sides of my head I got hair.
I have eyelashes and eyebrows. I've got a little bit of hair on my fingers.
I've got hair in my armpits. I'm a regular hairy guy.
Women, guys and girls, we all, unless you have alopecia, we all have hair, right?
Can you imagine humans with no hair? That doesn't sound attractive.
It sounds scary, doesn't it? Is it just me?
A bunch of bald people? Yeah. Scientists say humans in the future could be hairless. not only hairless and missing four body parts.
Body parts. A finger is a body part. A hand is a body part.
An arm is a body part. A neck is a body part.
Humans in the future will be missing four body parts?
Oh my God, that sounds horrible. What body parts do they think?
Well, number one, the tailbone. I the tailbone so you got your shoulders right and in your back you got the backbone right the backbone that goes all the way down to your butt and then Beyond the butt, it's got some extra bones, right?
And those bones are called the tailbone.
Sometimes if you fall and you fall really hard on your butt, you can hurt your tailbone.
Oh, that's really painful. It's really, really painful, right?
Yeah, humans, we have a tailbone and we don't have a tail.
Do we need a tailbone? Well, scientists say in the future we may not have tailbones.
Okay, that's okay. We can miss that one.
The next one are wisdom teeth, wisdom teeth.
Those are the bottom two teeth and upper two teeth all the way back in your mouth.
A lot of people, when their wisdom teeth start coming out, go to the dentist and the dentist pulls the wisdom teeth.
Me, I have all four. I have all my wisdom teeth.
And when they came, oh, it hurt. But I'm tough.
I'm a guy. So I just said, that's okay. It was very painful.
But whatever. It's okay. And now I'm fine.
I have all my teeth. Yeah. But a lot of people get their wisdom teeth pulled.
Okay. The appendix. Do you know the appendix?
So basically, you have your intestines, right?
So you swallow food. The food goes into the stomach, right?
It goes into the stomach. And then it goes on that long... Well, the intestines... at the at the very and on the right side of your intestine is a little like balloon, a little tube.
It's attached to your intestines. And that's called the appendix.
When I was... I don't know how old I was.
30-something, 35 years old. I don't know how old I was.
My appendix... I had to go to surgery to remove my appendix.
It nearly exploded. Oh, so painful. Very, very painful.
And they say the appendix is not really necessary.
I don't know. Is it not necessary? Then why did God give it to us?
But anyway, they say in the future, humans may not have an appendix.
And what's the fourth thing? So the four body parts, the tailbone, wisdom teeth, the appendix, and little toes.
Oh, my God. So we have five toes on our feet, right?
Five toes, the big toe, and then the four little toes.
And they say little toes. And what they mean here is the pinky toe, the fifth toe.
So you got on your hand, you got your thumb, your first finger or index finger. your second finger or middle finger your third finger or ring finger and then your pinky Your fourth finger, the pinky, right?
You can call it the fifth finger too, but this is a thumb.
Same thing on your foot. It would be the pinky toe.
The pinky toe. That'll be gone. That'll be gone.
You're going to have only four toes. You're going to be bald. no tailbone, no wisdom teeth, no appendix, and you're only going to have four toes.
Why? Why is this going to happen? Evolution.
Oh, do you know evolution? Evolution is the science theory that says we all came from fish.
We were fish and then we came from fish to land and then somehow we were monkeys and then we're humans.
This is the scientific theory of evolution.
And science says as evolution continues...
Humans, our bodies, will continue to change.
And those changes will become hairless. We'll lose our tail bones, we'll lose our wisdom teeth, we'll lose our appendix, and we'll lose our little toes. evolution might decide we don't need them anymore.
Modern diets, the food we eat nowadays, and shoes, we all wear shoes, make these parts, these body parts, less useful.
So in 1,000 years, we might look like bald, four-toed aliens.
Don't panic. Don't worry. Your toes are safe for now.
Wow, that's scary. That's weird. Yeah, I don't like that idea.
Even though I don't have a lot of hair, I don't have much.
But I like it. I like my hair. I have a friend who was losing his hair and then he just shaved his hair.
He's bald now. I'm not going to do that.
I like the side hair. Yeah. I don't look at the back of my head.
Right? I don't see my bald spot. You see my bald spot?
I don't care. I don't see it. Anyway, okay, we got a couple songs coming up.
Fascination by the Human League. Oh, I love that song.
And... You know, for all the bald guys out there, all the bald people out there, I'm too sexy, by right said Fred.
That's what's coming up. But let me read the news stories one more time.
Here we go. On Sunday, a mass shooting at Taste of the City Lounge in Brooklyn, New York left three people dead and eight injured.
The NYPD says multiple gunmen opened fire after a dispute inside the crowded club.
Police found 36 shell casings and are checking cameras for clues.
No arrests yet, but they're asking for tips.
Eleven Madison Park, a fancy New York restaurant, said bye bye to its vegan-only menu last week.
After three years of plant-based dishes, they're bringing back meat.
Customers missed their juicy steaks, and chefs wanted more fun in the kitchen.
Don't worry, veggie lovers, some vegan options will stay.
And finally, scientists say humans in the future could be hairless? and missing four body parts, the tailbone, wisdom teeth, the appendix and little toes.
Why? evolution might decide we don't need them anymore.
Modern diets and shoes make these parts less useful.
So in 1,000 years, we might look like bald, four-toed aliens.
Don't panic. Your toes are safe for now.
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 hey everybody country shane here bringing you the facts today I'm gonna talk about goose bumps.
Do you know what goose bumps are? G-O-O-S-E-B-U-M-P-S.
Sometimes on your arm or on the back of your neck When you get really scared, or when you're really cold, The hair stands up and your skin gets bumpy like a chicken or like a goose.
And we call that goose bumps. So when you're cold or scared, Tiny muscles pull your hair up, giving you goosebumps.
And this is a part of evolution for animals Animals did this or had this reaction to look bigger or to stay warm.
So have you ever seen a little cat when it gets really angry and its hair stands up?
If you could touch the cat's skin, you would feel goosebumps.
It looks bigger and scarier. But for us humans, we don't need it.
We just eat at McDonald's every day and we're gonna look bigger and stay warmer.
Country Shane bringing you the facts. Thank you very much, Country Shane.
Oh, wow. I didn't know that. That's really cool.
Yeah, goosebumps. I know because my second language is Korean and in Korean they say daksal which translates to chicken skin.
And in America, we don't say chicken skin.
We say ori-sal or goose bumps or ori-dongori.
Goose bumps. What do you say in your language?
What's the translation? Do you say, like, chicken skin or goose skin?
You know what I'm talking about, those little tiny bumps.
That's part of evolution. So when our bodies... Assuming we were monkeys, right?
When our bodies had lots and lots of hair...
When we got goosebumps, the hair would stand up and we would look bigger.
That's so interesting. My God. Country Shane, you're a genius.
We got another song, and jeez, you know, I'm not a Swifty fan.
But this might be the perfect song if you got a tailbone and you don't want it. shake it off.
If you got some hair on your body and you don't want it, shake it off.
Taylor Swift singing Shake It Off, and we'll be back with tips for mastering English.
Tips for mastering English. Welcome, everybody.
Phrasal verb of the week is to turn down. to turn down.
Now many of you know, for example, The volume, the audio level on the TV or the music in the car.
Turn down the stereo. Turn down the TV. Yeah, that's one definition.
But I'm going to give you three things. different definitions, okay?
So the first one I have is to refuse... or to reject something, meaning saying no to an offer.
Somebody offers you something and you say no.
She turned down the job because it paid too little.
Okay. He turned down the invitation to the party.
Somebody invited him to a party and he said no.
He turned it down. Another definition, like I just said, lower the volume or intensity to reduce the sound or the light.
At nighttime, you can turn down the light, not turn off, turn it down.
So in my bed, I have a reading light and it's very, very bright.
And it has a timer, so it gets dimmer and dimmer and dimmer and eventually goes off.
Very convenient. It puts me to sleep. So to reduce sound or light.
Can you turn down the music? It's too loud.
They turned down the lights for the movie.
Or for romance, a little bit of romance.
You don't want fluorescent lights when you're being romantic, right?
And of course, the other definition I want to give you is to fold something down physically, to bend or adjust something.
Two examples. I turned down the corner of the book page So you're reading a book, right?
And it's like, oh, wow, this book is so interesting.
And then, oh, I'm going to save my page.
So at the top it says page 141. I'm going to take the corner of the page and I'm going to turn it down and then I can close the book and I can easily find where I was.
Okay. And the other example, she turned down the bed covers to sleep.
So... And they do this at a hotel too, by the way.
They have turned down service. Especially at a hotel.
If you sleep in a hotel, like a really nice hotel, the sheets and the blankets are really tight on the bed and they'll offer turned down services especially for grandmas and grandpas who can't and kind of pull apart the blankets and somebody will come in and turn down, they'll remove the sheets so that they're easy to get into bed.
Turn down the covers. Turn down the sheets.
Turn down the blankets. That's the idea.
Turn down. So three different definitions.
We use them all the time. They're great. phrases that the phrasal verb turned down is a great phrasal verb and we use it a lot the way to memorize it is to use it.
But the best way to use it is to hear it being used and then use it.
And this is why, for example, my DDM classes, my Daily Dictation members classes are so excellent.
Because we study real daily English and we see it being used and then we have a chance to use it. so if you're not a ddm member i recommend you join if you're in my community just go to the classroom section and you'll see ddm and if you have any questions Ask.
Listening tip of the week. And I really like this.
Catch the main idea. One thing I typically do not recommend students do is study the news.
And it's okay. You can study the news for English if you want.
But the reason I don't recommend it is because the news... can talk about subjects you have no idea about.
And then it's kind of frustrating because you don't understand anything.
But... Nowadays, of course, with the internet, you can go online.
If you have access to YouTube, you can go to ABC News or CNN News.
And they have all their news stories cut into pieces.
So they have economics news. They'll have some baseball news.
They'll have some news about some celebrity.
They'll have politics, right? They have all these different stories.
And they're usually short. One minute long, two minutes long, which is very convenient.
So if there's a subject that you like and it's in the news, this is what I recommend you do.
Listen to a one minute or two minute English news clip or a podcast.
Watch it if you can. You can listen to it more than once.
But after listening to it, don't use subtitles.
Do not use subtitles. No words. After listening to it, I want you to say the main idea in one simple sentence.
For example, this story was about a new law.
This story was about the Memphis Grizzlies basketball team.
This story was about the mass shooting in New York.
That's all. Just listen to the story, get the story, get a feeling for the story, and then make a sentence saying what the story was about.
And you're done. That's it. That's all you have to do.
If you do this every day, you'll really train your brain to focus on the key points in the stories, on the key points in the conversations.
It'll train your brain to not focus on every single word.
It'll train your brain to listen to the big story.
It's very powerful. So catch the main idea.
Good luck with that. And finally, our communication tip, soften your requests.
Give me something. Give me some milk. Give me some water.
Don't do that. Help me with this. Don't say that.
Use polite phrases to sound friendly when asking for something.
Would you mind helping me with this? Would you mind?
Would you mind daily pronunciation? Would you mind, would you mind helping me with this?
Could you. Could you? Could you possibly do that again?
Could you possibly say that again? Could you possibly explain that again?
I'd really appreciate it if, I'd really appreciate it if you could, if you would, if you might...
Say that again. Do that again. Help me. I'd really appreciate it if you could help me.
Great expressions. Would you mind... Could you possibly ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
I'd really appreciate it if you ba-ba-ba-ba-ba.
And then fill it in. Fill in the blanks.
Beautiful, very polite expressions. You can use them in your email too if you send business email.
Yeah, they're great. Great to use. Practice these, make your English sound kind and natural.
Speaking of kind and natural, we studied turn down, turn down.
I don't like turn down. Autographs, turn up the radio.
The Let's Master English weekly speaking challenge.
Welcome everybody. Last week's theme. A time you felt connected to nature.
Thank you so much to Gia and Evelyn, Eva, Gulistan, Alex Moslov. and Ada Ada.
Ada Ada, I have to say, everybody, if you're in the community, listen to Ada Ada's recording because, number one, She's a great storyteller.
She really is. Listening to her is always very interesting.
She has a natural ability to tell a story.
It's great. Number two, she took our advice and worked on the daydreaming.
I'm so happy about that. And number three...
Ada, Ada, you used the adverbs I told you guys to use last week.
I'm so happy. So really excellent job, Ada, Ada.
But this week's listener highlight goes to Evelyn because Evelyn... felt connected to nature when she was visited by her boyfriends?
I had some unexpected guests at 7 am this morning. my boar friends Robert and Marceline.
They came for coffee. They were very polite but They didn't leave a tip.
Guys, it's not boyfriends. It was boar friends.
B-O-A-R, boar, wild pigs. Evelyn lives in France, and she has some wild pigs that live near her and visit her, but they don't tip.
Evelyn, thanks a lot. I loved your story.
It's fantastic. This week's theme, your body.
Ooh, you touched my tra-la-la. No, not that one.
Questions to answer. What body part or body feature would you like to lose?
Hmm. Why do you want to lose it? And how would that make you feel?
Okay? So, for example, this is my example.
Here we go. I would like to lose the fat on my tummy.
I can't even bend over to tie my shoes. I have to sit down.
Without the fat on my tummy, I would feel and look great.
Right now, I look like a fat, bald guy with four toes.
I don't like that. If I can only lose my belly fat.
Yeah, I would like to lose that. What about you?
Maybe the same thing? Maybe the same thing.
Keep your answer under 20 seconds. Be fun.
Be clear. That's most important. Be clear. clear and record your voice to practice real English listening upload these to our community And remember, people from around the world will listen to your recording.
That's a good thing. And everybody, when you listen to each other, if you don't understand what somebody said, ask questions.
Be nice. Say, oh, I couldn't understand what you said at the three-second mark.
Okay, something like that. Be nice, but help each other.
If our pronunciation is not clear, Fix that, right?
Otherwise, why speak? There's no point speaking.
But we want to speak. I want to hear your voices.
But your pronunciation needs to be clear.
So if it's not, we need to fix that. That's our job.
That's what we do in Perth. So if you got a speaking problem and you want to improve your speaking, you should join our perf classes.
Time for a song. Ah, yeah, we're talking about body again.
We've got to get out of this. John Mayers, Your Body is a Wonderland on the Let's Master English podcast.
It is August 18th, 2025, the 230th day of the year.
There are 136 days left in 2025. celebrations and holidays this week, August 18th.
Today, Never Give Up Day. I love it. Don't give up.
It's true. With your English especially.
It doesn't matter how old you are or how young you are.
Don't give up. Keep going. It's fun. We try to make it fun, right?
Hopefully the Let's Master English podcast is fun.
Don't give up. August 19th, tomorrow is World Photography Day.
In our community, we have so many members who share amazing pictures.
There was a sunset. Somebody shared a sunset out their car.
They were just driving, and they saw a sunset, and they shared a picture.
I'm looking for it right now. Where is it?
Look at all these pictures if you're in my community.
There we go. Music Life. She did that. A gorgeous sunset.
Picture from the car. Yeah, it's just nice.
It's just nice. Sunsets are beautiful. Photography day.
That's Tuesday. Tomorrow. August 20th. World Mosquito Day.
I do not like mosquitoes. August 21st, World Entrepreneur's Day.
Oh, people who start businesses. Small businesses usually, they might be big, might become big.
Are you an entrepreneur? I am an entrepreneur.
I have our English education business. I am an entrepreneur.
It's my day, August 21st. August 22nd is Be An Angel Day.
Be really, really nice to someone. Be an angel.
I like that. August 23rd is National Sponge Cake Day.
Do you know what sponge cake is? It's just a regular cake, kind of bouncy, kind of like a sponge.
Like if you wash dishes with a sponge, it's yellow.
And it's very plain. But like, for example, sponge cake and strawberries and some like cream.
So delicious. Oh, man, that's delicious.
National Sponge Cake Day is August 23rd.
And on August 24th, it is International Strange Music Day.
So we have a request from Hajime. And he requested... i'm sure it's very popular but it's new to me he requested the theme song from some manga show neon genesis Evangelion.
So in honor of International Strange Music Day, we're going to listen to that song.
And then we got to listen to Photograph.
Right. Because World Photography Day is October.
I'm sorry, August 19th. So there's two really famous, actually I think, who's the redheaded guy, the British guy?
Doesn't he have a photograph song too? Yeah, Ed Sheeran.
Ed Sheeran. So Ed Sheeran has a song called Photograph.
Beautiful song. Nickelback Canadian rock band has a song called Photograph.
Great song. And Def Leppard has a song called Photograph.
Now, if you guys know me, I'm a Def Leppard fan.
Evgeny, one of my students, he's actually from Russia but he lives in Canada, he went to a Def Leppard concert and sent me a Def Leppard t-shirt.
It's my favorite t-shirt ever. So which photograph song are we going to hear?
Can you imagine? Of course. Nickelback.
Yeah, you guys thought I was going to play Def Leppard's photograph.
I wanted to, but Nickelback is great too.
I love that song. Time for birthdays, celebrity birthdays this week, and none of my students or my listeners sent me any birthday information, so I'm a little bit sad.
Really? None of you are having a birthday or anything special this week?
Well, anyway, if you are, happy whatever it is.
This week, today, August 18th, Robert Redford, actor, 89 years old, from The Sting, long time ago.
Edward Norton, 56 years old, from the Fight Club movie.
Remember it was Brad Pitt. and the other guy was Edward Norton he's 56 Christian Slater I love that guy he's a great actor he's also 56
I thought he was older than me. Oh my God, he's younger than me?
August 19th, tomorrow, would have been Matthew Perry's birthday.
That's Chandler from Friends. By the way, if you're in our English camp, we study Friends.
It's so much fun to study it. He was born in 1969.
It's already two years since he's died. Can you believe that?
It's already two years. Seems very recent.
Two years is recent, but yeah. RIP to Chandler.
Coco Chanel. Oh, Chanel No. 5. She's been gone for a long time, but it is her birthday too.
So ladies, if you like Chanel, Coco Chanel died in 1971, a long time ago.
John Stamos, so many women love that guy.
He's 62 years old. Tomorrow, August 20th, singer-actress Demi Lovato is 33.
August 21st, Olympic sprinter, world record holder, Usain Bolt.
I love that guy. 39 years old. August 22nd, Dua Lipa singer.
She's 30. August 23rd, again, RIP. Kobe Bryant, NBA star, it would have been his birthday.
He died in 2020, five years ago already.
And it's Shelley Long's birthday. She's 76.
So before Friends, right? In America, really, really famous sitcoms.
Before Friends, it was Seinfeld. And before Seinfeld, it was a show called Cheers.
Does anybody know Cheers? Cheers was great.
It was a really great show. And Shelley Long was the waitress in Cheers.
And finally, August 24th, one of my favorite comedians, Dave Chappelle.
He's going to be 52 years old. And Ron Weasley from Harry Potter, the red-headed kid, Ron Weasley.
His name is Rupert Grint. He... will be 37 years old if it's your birthday anniversary or something special happening to you I sincerely wish you the best.
Happy birthday or whatever it is to you.
For Chandler and also, well, we got a great song. the Rembrandts for everybody, right?
I'll be there for you. And we're gonna put in an old song too.
Blinded by the Light, Manfred Mann's earth band, and I'll talk about why after the music.
Welcome back. Do you guys know that last song, They're Blinded by the Light?
Great song. It's really funny because this was a song that came out in the 70s, very, very popular through the 70s.
Even today, it's still a loved song. But the lyrics, the words that the singer sings, nobody really understands.
It sounds like... Blinded by the light Wrecked up like a douche Another runner in the night Wrecked up like a douche.
Another runner in the night. That's what it sounds like.
And that's what everybody says. And everybody laughs about it.
But actually, the words are not wrecked up like a douche.
It's revved up like a deuce. Revved up like a deuce.
Another runner in the night. But it sounds like wrecked up like a douche.
The reason I chose this song is misheard lyrics.
And there are so many songs that we listen to and we actually don't, we mishear the lyrics, we say the wrong thing, Another favorite song of mine is Lucille.
Do you guys know the song Lucille? You picked a fine time to leave me, Lucille.
400 children and a crop in the field. 400 children?
No, it was actually, four hungry children.
But when you listen to the song by Kenny Rogers...
It actually sounds like he's saying 400 children.
So Lucille is like his wife and she left him.
And she left him with 400 children. Oh my God, that's a lot of kids.
But it was actually for hungry children.
That's a little bit better. But still, Lucille, why did you leave him?
So I just love misheard lyrics. And that's what I was thinking when I chose that song.
That's it for the podcast everybody. I hope that you enjoyed it.
I hope you learned something. More importantly I hope that as you listened to the podcast English was not stressful.
That's why I create this podcast. I want you to be able to listen to English and enjoy it.
I hope that's what happened again if you're listening to the music version you're extra lucky Everybody can do that.
Right now it's August 2025 and my community is free.
If you listen in the future or go to my community in the future, it might not be free, but it will not be expensive.
Okay. It'll be very, very inexpensive. It's just to keep out the scammers.
But the community is school.com slash LME.
I'll spell that. S-K-O-O-L dot com slash L-M-E.
School.com. Wonderful community. So much happening inside the community.
And you get the full version of the podcast.
All right, that's it. Taking us out, we got another request song.
Roy Sops featuring Robin with Monument. That's a request from Serge.
And... It's the end of summer. I hope that you're having a wonderful summer.
If you're in Brazil, of course, it's the end of winter.
So yeah, same thing. Hope you're having a nice end.
Summer vacation is about over. These days on Instagram, on social media, there's lots of videos of people enjoying their vacations and Italy and evidently for a long long time until today this song in Italy is loved then, now, and perhaps forever.
It is a beautiful song And my Italian friends, I'm really sorry.
Grazie, I can say thank you in Italian. Bambino, I can say baby in Italian. but the pronunciation of the song is going to be terrible.
And the singer is Richie Pavare. I believe.
But the song is beautiful. Two songs taking us out.
I hope that you enjoy them. I'll be back again next week.
If you have birthdays or something, let us know.
And together, let's master English.
