This is the Let's Master English Podcast, and I'm your host, Coach Shane.
Hey, everybody. Coach Shane here.
Thanks so much. You are listening to the Let's Master English Podcast number 116.
Publishing date. April 14th, 2025.
It's a Monday! I like Mondays.
I mean, a Monday is actually no different than any other day.
Just work, work, work.
But at least I like my job and part of my job is helping you with your English.
And that's what this Let's Master English podcast is about.
It's basically a magazine directed to you.
people who want to master English.
Now we do have a membership version, uh, that has great songs.
It's like a radio show.
So I want you to be a member.
It's really easy. Just send an email, contact at letsmasterenglish .com and say, I love the Let's Master English podcast. Can I listen to the full version?
And we'll help you out.
Yeah, we'll definitely help you out.
This podcast is growing.
Thanks to you. Please tell your friends if you like this podcast if you're learning something, please share it Tell your friends to listen to it.
I Sincerely appreciate it.
I promise I will always do my best to deliver great content and with that That takes us right into our opening song it is the promise when in Rome I love this song back to the 80s a request from Serge, enjoy In Colorado hotel staff got quite the surprise when a black bear wandered into the lobby sniffed around the front desk and Casually walked off with a cookie from the snack display No one was hurt, but the bear seemed pretty pleased with his snack A sky diving enthusiast in Italy broke a world record by wearing 35 shirts during a free fall.
He said it was for fun and fashion and also admitted the landing was a little warmer than expected.
And finally, a Michigan boy managed to order over $1 ,000 worth of toys on his family's Amazon account by talking to their smart speaker.
The packages started arriving the next day.
One included a child sized ATV.
His parents are now using a PIN code.
Oh, what a terrible story.
Yeah, it's not the first time.
Lots of great stuff to learn.
Let's go back to the first story.
In Colorado, America has 50 states and Colorado is one of them.
Of course, it is the state with beautiful mountains, the Rocky Mountains.
In Colorado, hotel staff, hotel employees got quite the surprise.
A big surprise, when?
When a black bear. So there are many types of bears in the world.
in America. A very common bear is called the black bear.
It's actually not huge like a polar bear or a grizzly bear but they're big and they can be dangerous for sure.
A black bear. What did a black bear do at a hotel?
What happened? A black bear wandered into the lobby.
Oh my god. So, a black bear wandered into...
that just means walked into the lobby, L -O -B -B -Y, the lobby, that's the, you know, the front door of the hotel where you check in.
They usually have some furniture you can check in.
They might have some drinks.
Wow, it sniffed around the front desk.
Mm, what do you have?
And casually, walked off with a cookie from the snack display, To walk off with something means to steal something.
So this bear walks into a hotel, sniffs around, he sees a snack display where they have different snacks, you know, cookies and candy bars and potato chips, maybe sodas, and he sees a cookie, he's like, Oh, I like the cookie, he takes the cookie and leaves.
Wow, now if you did that, what would happen?
They would call the police and you would go to jail but a bear does this and what happens, nothing.
No one was hurt, that's good, but the bear seemed pretty pleased, very happy with his snack.
You know Winnie the Pooh likes honey.
You know that right Winnie the Pooh loves honey.
I guess black bears love cookies.
Winnie the Pooh is a yellow bear so he likes honey.
Black bears like cookies.
I wonder if it was a chocolate cookie.
Yeah, sounds delicious It's crazy Black bears will do this.
Yeah, especially this time of year.
They're waking up from their winter hibernation where they sleep all winter, so they're very hungry.
They're looking for food and Cookies, hmm.
That's a really good food scary stuff the second story this is just silly a skydiving Enthusiast, do you know what skydiving is jumping out of airplanes with a parachute?
Enthusiast somebody who really loves something.
So maybe you are a movie enthusiast. You love to watch movies Maybe you are an English Enthusiast you love to study and learn English.
That's great. Well, this is a skydiving in Italy broke a world record. Oh, another world record. Congratulations.
What world record? By wearing 35 shirts during a free fall.
What? This is so silly.
You can do anything and break a world record. So this guy jumped out of an airplane but he was wearing 35 shirts as he was jumping and that is a world record. So, you know what guys, this is the deal.
Next week, when I do my Let's Master English, I'm going to set a world record by wearing four shirts while I do the podcast. Okay?
Four. So, it's gonna be a new record. Right now, I've worn two, I know that, maybe even three, but for sure, four will be a world record, so I'm going to set a world record next week.
I'm excited. so why did this guy do it obviously to break a world record but he said it was for fun and fashion fashion 35 t -shirts his not fashion that is silliness and also he admitted the landing when he got back to Earth was a little warmer than expected yeah you're wearing 35 t -shirts or 35 shirts that's crazy alright the last story this is you know once again I've heard of this type of story before, but it's good for us to study English.
A Michigan boy—so America has 50 states.
One of the states is Colorado.
Another state is Michigan—right in the center, northern part of America.
A Michigan boy—by the way, he was five years old—managed to do something.
When we say managed to do something, it means you did it, But it wasn't easy it was difficult So what did this boy do?
Well, he managed to order over $1 ,000 worth of toys on his family's Amazon account by talking to their smart speaker.
Oh My god see mom and dad you have to be very careful what you do and what you say because your children are watching you.
I've been watching you.
Dad ain't that cool.
When you order on Amazon, I'm gonna order like you.
You bought a hat. Well, I'm gonna buy some toys.
Ha ha ha! Do you use Amazon in your country?
I'm curious, if you don't use Amazon in your country, What is the most popular shopping app?
Because in America my wife and I we use Amazon.
We sometimes use eBay, sometimes we'll use other places, but if we buy something online, geez 95%, we buy on Amazon, yeah that's what we do.
But we do not use a smart speaker, we don't.
I actually have a smart speaker, My sister gave it to me like a couple years ago as a gift. I never set it up because it's weird It's listening to you But nowadays your smartphone is listening to you also right your smartphone listens to you My car listens to me my TV listens to me So I might as well use a smart speaker.
Do you use a smart speaker?
Do you order on your smart speaker?
Yeah? Maybe I should do that maybe I should set it up Anyway, $1 ,000 jeez, nowadays with the difficult economy, that's crazy.
A Michigan boy managed to order over $1 ,000 worth of toys on his family's Amazon account.
How? By talking to their smart speaker.
The packages started arriving the next day.
And one of the packages included a child sized ATV.
Do you know what an ATV is an ATV is an all -terrain vehicle?
It's basically a truck a car a Jeep.
Oh Yes, you can drive it It's something that you drive and you can drive it in the country in the dirt over hills and the mud This kid ordered a child sized ATV Wow, that is cool Um, yeah.
When I was a child I would have loved to have a child -sized ATV.
Look it up ATV. You can see...
Just go to Google or Bing .com and the images.
Type ATV and you'll see what it is.
It's really cool. His parents learned of their mistake and now they use a PIN code.
P I N personal identification number you know like zero zero zero zero is that your pin code zero zero zero zero oh you know I typically the pin codes are four numbers and now they're starting to become six numbers and this is getting really confusing for me because I now have something that uses five numbers Four numbers is easy.
You know, it can be like a birth date.
You know, your mom's birthday, your son, your birthday.
Six numbers is easy.
The year and the birth date, right?
That's easy. Seven numbers, easy.
It could be a phone number.
But five numbers. What's five numbers?
A zip code? Well I guess a zip code would work.
But yeah, pin code.
Yeah, there's too many things to remember.
All right, we've got two great songs that kind of match these stories, so I want you to enjoy them.
Selena Gomez, Call Me When You Break Up.
Call Me When You Break Up.
Why does this match?
Well, talking on the smart speaker.
And oh, I love this one.
And my wife does too.
Tom Petty's, Free Fallin' for the guy who set a skydiving world record by wearing 35 shirts.
But before that, let's listen to the news one more time.
In Colorado, hotel staff got quite the surprise when a black bear wandered into the lobby, sniffed around the front desk, and casually walked off with a cookie from the snack display.
No one was hurt, but the bear seemed pretty pleased with his snack.
A sky diving enthusiast in Italy broke a world record by wearing 35 shirts during a free fall.
He said it was for fun and fashion, and also admitted the landing was a little warmer than expected.
And finally, a Michigan boy managed to order over 1 ,000 dollars worth of toys on his family's Amazon account by talking to their smart speaker the packages started arriving the next day one included a child sized ATV his parents now use a PIN code Education and entertainment come together let's master English do it How you doing everybody?
This is Country Shane, and I'm bringing you the facts.
Hey everybody, Country Shane here.
You know those smart devices?
They're great. They can understand over 100 languages.
Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant.
What do you use as smart device.
Do you use it in your language only?
Or have you tried English?
Oh yeah, those smart devices even recognize regional accents and dialects, but they're not perfect!
Sometimes you might say something like, uh, play songs!
And the smart speaker will order socks.
Hey Country Shane, thanks so much. You know, Country Shane is actually really correct.
AI is amazing. Using AI, artificial intelligence, is so amazing.
It's making things very convenient.
But there's a problem when it comes to these smart speakers, even ChatGPT.
And I've done I've tested it and you can use for example an American accent and say hello I would like to write down some notes and then switch to a Boston accent Yeah, hey, yeah pocket car and Boston yard and then switch to a Texan accent how y 'all doing down there?
Y 'all been enjoying the warm weather?
And then switch to a Minnesota accent.
Yup, up there in Minnesota, they're gonna talk like this.
And chatGPT or Microsoft Word whatever it is understands everything.
And you can even switch to a British accent.
Hello, my name is Coach Shane and this is the Received pronunciation or you can switch to a Liverpool, a Scouse accent.
Oh, I like a bottle of water.
Oh, I like to drink a bottle of water and It will understand So why am I telling you this?
a lot of people are trying to use AI to work on their speaking skills and AI is really smart.
It's able to understand you many times even if your pronunciation is really bad but humans can't.
AI is more intelligent than humans.
AI is able to understand things better than humans and that's a problem.
So when it comes to working on your speaking skills your pronunciation skills.
AI just isn't your best friend.
Another human is gonna be the best. And speaking of that, we do that.
Absolutely we do that!
So you can join my classes and talk to actual humans to actually fix your pronunciation.
Even if you're French. What?
Sacré Bleu, even if you're French why do you say Well the only reason I said that is because the next song is a French song and my pronunciation is going to be really bad but I'm going to try.
The singer, indilla.
and the song name, tonner dans la vie.
I hope that was an okay pronunciation.
It was probably horrible.
It's a beautiful song just over 10 years old wait for the chorus you might recognize it bon appetit with this song mastering English as an adult step six part two yes we got the answers today we need to master daily English that's the subject now you've mastered pronunciation or we're working on fixing our pronunciation intonation sentence intonation sentence rhythm sentence flow listening skills, but now it's mastering daily English and the question again, what is daily English?
So last week I gave you this sentence They gotta put in a light over there They Gotta put in a light Over there, and I asked you guys to listen to to tell me what that sentence actually means and a couple of people did a wonderful job.
I'm really happy. Excellent job.
But I know some of you have not heard the story, so I'm going to read the situation again.
I want you to listen carefully, and then I'm going to give you the answer.
Alright, so here we go.
You are driving home after work.
Oh, by the way, everybody, if you're a member, and it's easy, contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
Send an email. Say, I love the Let's Master English podcast. can I be a member?
Okay and we'll hook you up.
If you're a member you can see this script in our community.
So here we go. You are driving home after work.
The road you are on is a very large road with many lanes.
There are no stop signs on this road and everyone drives along at around 100 kilometers per hour.
As you're driving along, suddenly the cars in front of you start to slow down.
After a few minutes everyone is stopped.
What happened? Well, it must be an accident.
You don't know, but what other reason could it be?
After a bit, the cars finally start to move.
And about 20 minutes later, you see what caused the traffic jam.
Yes. A large truck carrying hundreds of bottles of beer was on its side.
The truck had entered the big road, and as it did, it rolled over on its side and glass bottles spilled everywhere on the road.
No one was hurt, but it was a mess!
Anyway, eventually, you arrive home, and your wife or your husband asks you, Why are you so late?
You explain what happened, and then you say, they gotta put in a light over there.
They gotta put in a light over there.
So the quiz was, please rewrite that sentence so the meaning is perfectly clear.
They gotta put in a light over there.
Now I'm gonna tell you the difference between daily English and academic English Daily English they Gotta Put in a light Over there Academic English proper English the government should install a traffic light where the accident happened.
The English that you learned in middle school and high school, academic English.
The sentences you studied in school were like, the government should install a traffic light where the accident happened.
But daily English replaces everything with something else.
Instead of the government, they.
Instead of should, gotta.
Instead of install, put in.
Instead of a traffic light, simply alight.
instead of where the accident happened, over there.
In daily English, we say they gotta put in a light over there.
In academic English, proper beautiful English, the government should install a traffic light where the accident happened.
Let me explain again.
If you looked in the dictionary, the government, if you looked in the dictionary, do you find the correct translation, the correct meaning?
Yes, the government.
Everybody understands the government.
If you look in the dictionary, if you look up the word should, can you find a good translation?
Can you find the meaning?
Absolutely, should.
S -H -O -U -L -D, you will find the meaning.
If you look up the word install, you will find the perfect meaning.
If you look up the word, a traffic light, you will find the perfect meaning.
If you look up where the accident happened, you will find the perfect meaning.
But if you look up they, does it say the government?
No. If you look up gotta, G -O -T -T -A, does it say should?
No, probably not. If you look up put in, does it say install?
Hmm, maybe, but not the first definition, not the second definition, probably not the third definition.
If you look up a light, does it tell you it means a traffic light?
No, it doesn't. If you look up over there, does it say where the accident happened?
No, and this is daily English.
Daily English uses words that replace perfect words.
In this story we never said the government.
All we said was they got to put in a light over there but who is they?
In this case it is the government.
The city government, the national government, the traffic bureau it's the government.
Why is it they? Because we're talking about a traffic light.
A traffic light. Who installs a traffic light?
Who decides where a traffic light goes?
Who actually does the work?
The city does. The government does.
They gotta. Gotta actually has five different meanings.
One meaning of gotta is must. Another meaning is have to.
Must and have to are very similar.
A third meaning is need to.
Now that's different.
Must and have to are similar.
Need to is different.
And another meaning is should or ought to.
Those two are similar.
So basically gara has three different meanings.
Number one, must or have to, number two, need to, and number three, should or ought to.
Now, how can I explain the difference?
If I tell my wife, wife you gotta wash the dishes, am I saying must?
Am I saying need to?
Or am I should. Now, my wife is a very tough, scary, strong woman.
If I tell my wife, you must wash the dishes, she might kill me.
So I would never, ever, ever say that.
I would not even say you need to wash the dishes.
No, no, no, no. I would never say that.
The only thing I might say would be you should wash the dishes that's the softest Request you should wash the dishes wife But if my wife says to me you gotta wash the dishes is She's saying should know is She saying need to know She's saying must And if my wife says to me you gotta wash the dishes What do I do?
Do I kill her? No. I wash the dishes.
So this is a good way to understand the difference between must have to, need to in the middle and should ought to.
So when we talk about the government, typically when we refer to the government, we don't say must, maybe we should.
It's more common that we say should ought to.
So the government should install.
Put in is a phrasal verb.
Put in can have many different meanings.
Put in a good word say.
Put in some money insert.
Put in the software install.
Put in can have many different meanings in this case it's install the government should install a light not a light like in your office obviously a traffic light a traffic light over there where is over there where the accident happened notice they replaces the government gotta replaces should put in replaces install A light replaces a traffic light over there replaces where the accident happened.
Academic English is beautiful.
It's perfect. It's easy to understand.
Daily English, the words are really simple, but what does it mean?
This, if you're an adult, is step number six.
Step number six is where you study and learn and get and understand daily English.
It's a beautiful step.
It's a lot of fun. So in my courses, you know I have speaking classes, I have listening classes.
In my listening classes, this is where I teach daily English.
It's so much fun. I really recommend you join my DDM But first get your speaking down first. Does that make sense the government should?
install a traffic light where the accident happened Academic English daily English They gotta put in a light over there.
Oh Too much information, let's enjoy a song.
This is kind of a cool song maybe.
Olivia Rodrigo. It's a driver's license on the LME podcast. It is April 14th, the 104th day of the year.
There are 262 days left in 2025.
Oh, yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
Yeah tomorrow is tax day April 15th.
Yes. It's personal tax day.
So I will be working today and tomorrow on my taxes I hate it Easter is coming up in six days on April 20th and cinco de Mayo is on May 5th 2025 21 days away, you know, I had a song in my list today a request song It's a Mexican song, well Mexican Spanish.
One of the singers is from Mexico.
The other singers are actually American.
Oh no, no, they're all American.
But anyway, it's a great song.
But I'm saving it. I'm saving it for Cinco de Mayo.
It's a great song. Let's see.
This week's national days and observances, today, April 14th is National Dolphin Day.
Dolphins like sharks but nice.
April 15th is World Art Day are you an artist who's your favorite artist. April 16th is Wear Pajamas to Work Day.
I like that. That sounds fun.
April 17th National Cheeseball Day.
That sounds like a very American holiday.
Cheese balls balls of cheese.
Yeah like they're like they're I like potato chips, but they're cheesy chips.
April 18th is national columnists' day.
Do you work for a newspaper?
Do you write for a magazine?
You are a columnist. April 19th, very healthy.
It is national garlic day.
Do you like garlic?
Do you use garlic in your cooking?
Garlic is a superfood.
G -A -R L -I -C, garlic.
Get some. And finally, April 20th is national lookalike day.
A lot of people, when they see my face, when they see me, they say, oh my God, you look like Brad Pitt.
A lot of people say that.
And I'm like, thank you very much, yeah.
I'm not Brad Pitt, but yeah, I understand, I look like him.
Some people say, and this actually makes me angry.
Some people say I look like Jim Carrey.
or even Mr. Bean. I don't like that, no. And these days, well, not, well kinda these days.
I've heard a lot of people say, I look like Heisenberg, Walter White, and that, to be honest, makes me really happy.
Say my name. Now we got a song coming up, and it's Ally and AJ.
They kinda look alike, I don't know if they're sisters, but they look alike and their song potential breakup song Celebrity birthdays Is it your birthday anniversary or something if it is let me know so I can introduce you and congratulate you April 14th today Sarah Michelle Geller She's 48 years old that is the actress from Buffy the Vampire Slayer I've never seen the show.
I've never seen it, but I know it was massively popular From Harry Potter the actress Emma Watson.
Yeah, she's 35 My god, Harry Potter seems like a couple years ago.
These little kids are 35 now Can you believe that April 16th?
The singer Akon is 52 Man, it makes me feel old.
Actress Jennifer Garner will be 53 on April 17th.
Comedian and talk show host Conan O 'Brien will be 62 on April 18th.
And James Franco, an actor, will be 47 on April 19th.
Who's this guy? Spider -Man.
Yeah, Spider -Man from 2002.
Can you believe that?
He's 47 already. And another 53 -year -old, Jennifer Garner earlier, and Carmen Electra will be 53.
She's a model and an actress, a singer too.
April 20th is her birthday.
Yep, Carmen Electra, famous for I think...
What was that swimming TV show?
Not Bodyguard, that's the movie.
Beaches, not beaches.
Lifeguard, what's the name of the movie?
What's the name of the TV show?
Baywatch. Thank you.
Baywatch. Yeah, she's 53.
yeah Now that I get older and older, you know when I was young I felt sexy.
I did, come on I'm everybody hopefully you know you feel kind of cool You feel kind of sexy.
And now as I'm getting older and older, I'm feeling kind of lonely oh It's not true these are just song introductions I've got Tom Jones and Moose T with sex bomb coming up before that though a con with lonely on the let's master English podcast Time to wrap up let's master English number 116 thanks so much for listening to the podcast. My name is coach Shane You can get the script of this podcast if you're a member.
You can listen to the music in this podcast, if you're a member just send us an email.
Let's, whoops, contact at letsmasterenglish .com and just say I love the Let's Master English podcast. I want to be a member and we'll help you out.
We're nice, we're nice like that.
These days, once again it's 2025 April.
These days the world's a bit crazy.
We have a new president in the United States, Donald Trump.
He's making lots of tariffs, taxes basically, on countries and those taxes go back and forth and prices are going up and it's getting really crazy and people are nervous and people are scared.
There's the war situations here and there, who knows what's going to happen, you know we want peace.
There's a lot of chaos.
There's a lot of chaos.
So Hajime requested a song.
This has got to stop.
This chaos has got to stop.
This ridiculousness has got to stop.
Let's be nice. Let's go back to normal.
Let's be friends. Let's do our work and do a good job.
This ridiculousness, this craziness, this stupidity has gotta stop.
It's an old Eric Clapton song.
That's what's taking us out, and I hope you enjoy it.
And regarding your struggles in English, that has gotta stop.
So stay with me! Together let's Master English!
