This is The Let's Master English podcast, and I'm your host, Coach Shane.
Hello everybody. It's time for The Let's Master English podcast, number 125.
I am Coach Shane. Great to have you.
Thank you so much for listening.
This podcast publication date is June 16th 2025 I actually produce it though on June 15th Sunday today is Sunday today is Father's Day Yeah, so today I have a Father's Day song at the very end So I hope you listen through the end if you know if you're listening Like on your iPhone or something like that your Android phone You probably don't hear the music because that's illegal on those platforms But if you remember you can listen to the music versions Absolutely, and it's easy.
It's free just send us an email contact at Let's master English comm you'll get access to our community and you will get access to the full podcast. With the script.
How cool is that? It's important, because we do a lot of studying lots of news, lots of great things to learn, and I'm just talking too much. Let's get going.
I got a song that everybody gets the title of the song wrong.
The band is 4 Non Blondes.
The title of the song is, WHAT 'S UP?
It is seen straight out of a cartoon.
A 30 -year -old elephant wandered out of a park and into a grocery store in northeastern Thailand.
The gentle giant helped himself to nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and dried bananas, leaving behind only muddy footprints.
After his shopping spree, he calmly exited the store, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk.
In Australia, a 27 -year -old courier rerouted 80 packages to his own home, with plans to sell them online.
After realizing he was in over his head, he returned the parcels and confessed.
He called it a stupid decision due to financial stress.
And finally, Oliver Wiger, 29, from Oregon, quit his corporate job, bought a boat and set sail to Hawaii with no sailing experience, his travel buddy, a cat named Phoenix.
After 25 days they arrived safely in Waikiki after what he called a long and educational journey.
There you go three cool stories.
One about an elephant, one about an idiot, and what about and one about well kind of another idiots?
I guess not it's cool freedom right sailing sailing takes me away too sorry Let's go back to the first story, a story about an elephant in Thailand.
So, this elephant lived, you know, in a park in the country, but he decided to go shopping.
So, let's listen here.
In a scene straight out of a cartoon, if we imagine this situation, it should be a cartoon.
This is too funny, a children's cartoon.
So, what happened? a 30 -year -old elephant.
That's not young, 30, 30 -year -old elephant.
Wandered out of a park, walked out of a park, and into a grocery store in Northeastern Thailand.
I guess the elephant knew where he was going.
A very smart animal, the elephant.
The gentle giant. Elephants are very gentle.
They're actually quite calm, very nice, very gentle, unless they're angry.
So we call them gentle giants.
The gentle giant helped himself to, which means he served himself, he did not ask anyone for help.
He did not ask anyone for permission.
He simply served himself.
What did he serve himself at this grocery store?
Nine bags of sweet rice crackers.
Rice crackers. I guess it's a type of cookie if it's sweet.
Nine bags. A sandwich, of course.
You can't have cookies without a sandwich, right?
And dried bananas, a very healthy meal.
Sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and dried bananas.
That's a very healthy meal.
It's a very smart, very smart elephant.
The gentle giant helped himself to nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich, and dried bananas, leaving behind only muddy footprints.
So, he did leave the store with his muddy M -U -D -D -Y, dirty muddy.
He's in a jungle, right?
Of course it's gonna be muddy footprints, so they could see the footprints in the store.
After his shopping spree, after his shopping trip where he went crazy, nine bags of sweet rice crackers, he calmly, of course, he's very gentle, he calmly exited the store, left the store, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk.
Aw! So I guess in the store he only ate eight bags of sweet rice crackers, but he took one bag home with him.
Now notice here, the last sentence, still holding a bag of treats with his trunk.
Do you know what a trunk is?
Ooh, not on a car. No, this is an elephant trunk.
That's the nose, the long nose.
Yeah, we call that a trunk.
So with the elephant's long nose, he was holding a bag of treats.
It's kind of sweet.
but still it's stealing it shoplifting right bad elephant bad elephant that must have been a small elephant if it went into a store right I because my image you know elephants are massive they're huge but if it went into a store it must have been kind of small anyway funny story the next story oh boy what a stupid guy in Australia, a 27 year old courier, do you know what a courier is?
C -O -U -R -I -E -R, courier.
This is a guy who delivers things, he's a delivery guy.
He delivers packages, like Amazon packages or something, I don't know, they don't say.
A 27 year old courier rerouted 80 packages to his own home.
So there's a package and it's supposed to go to Coach Shane's home?
The route is to coach Shane's home?
Nope. He took it to his home.
There's another package and it's supposed to go to your home?
Nope. He took it to his home.
He did this 80 times.
A 27 year old courier rerouted 80 packages to his own home.
Why? with plans to sell them online he doesn't even know what's in the packages but he was just taking him and he was gonna open them and then he was gonna sell the stuff online what an idiot he's a courier they know who has the Packages 80 that's a lot After Realizing he was in over his head After realizing he was in Way too much He was gonna be in big trouble over his head the idea when we say the expression over hit in over his head It's like when you're out in the water you go into a swimming pool, right and one end of the swimming pool is not deep but then you start walking and the water gets
deeper and deeper and deeper and Eventually, if it's a big pool, the water will be over your head.
That's a dangerous situation if you can't swim That's what this guy Realized, you know like on day 1 he had one package Nobody's gonna know You can just say somebody stole it on day 2 he had four packages.
No, this is gonna be good money Nobody's gonna know But on day eight he had 80 packages and he's like, oh my god 80 packages.
This is crazy No, this is a this is bad.
I'm gonna get in trouble.
This is really really bad After realizing he was in over his head He returned the parcels the packages parcels PA are CLS packages boxes and confessed C -O -N -F -E -S -S -E -D, he confessed.
I did it, I'm sorry, I did it, I took the packages.
He called it a stupid decision, yeah, due to because of financial stress.
Financial stress. I'm an English teacher, believe me, I know all about financial stress.
What about you? We all have financial stress, right?
You know, one of my favorite TV shows is called Breaking Bad.
Breaking Bad, that, that TV show was created due to financial stress.
And when we have financial stress, sometimes we make stupid decisions.
Be careful. Yeah, be careful.
Stupid guy, anyway.
Next and the final story.
Oliver Cowder, this guy.
Maybe you have seen him on like Instagram.
I've seen him on Instagram.
He's on Instagram Facebook Tiktok, he's everywhere recently recently.
He's 29 years old Oliver Woods.
You're 29 from Oregon America has 50 states.
Oregon is one of those states.
It's out on the west coast. We've got, California Above California to the north of California is Oregon and then you have Washington and then you have Canada Okay, so it's Mexico, California, Oregon, Washington, Canada on the US West Coast So this guy is in Oregon, so what did he do?
He quit his corporate job He had a good job a corporate job corporation big company.
He had a corporate job After he quit his job.
What did he do? bought a boat he bought a boat a sailboat and and set sail to Hawaii.
It's like 2 ,500 miles in kilometers.
What's that? Oh gosh, I don't know what this is.
4 ,000 kilometers. I don't know, just a guess.
4 ,000 kilometers. He had no sailing experience.
This guy's an idiot.
Oliver Woodger, 29 from Oregon, quit his corporate job, bought a boat, and set sail to Hawaii, from Oregon, to Hawaii with no sailing experience.
But he brought somebody.
His travel buddy? A cat named Phoenix.
Well, believe it or not, after 25 days they arrived safely in Waikiki, which is in Hawaii.
amazing after what he called a long and educational journey.
Wow and once again if you you might know the guy because he's been on very, very popular on social media these days every day uploading videos about his trip.
Pretty amazing. You know, it's the idea of freedom, right?
Freedom. And I do respect that.
I think he's crazy for sailing 2 ,000, about 4 ,000 kilometers, I don't know.
Sailing a really long distance with no sailing experience.
That's just crazy. But fortunately he's okay.
He must be pretty smart.
But that idea of freedom, just getting out there and going.
But for me? Driving, I'll drive.
Okay. I mean you can give me a car a truck a bus whatever even flying I I don't want to fly I don't like flying Sometimes you have to but I just don't like it a boat is okay But like a big cruise ship or are there's restaurants.
I want that but I'm not rich, so no boats No planes That leaves me with cars or a bicycle Oh, you know what?
I have two songs that actually kind of show you this freedom.
One is a request song, it's Chuo Freeway by Yumi Arai Yumi Arai, it's a Japanese song, and I got the video and it's just driving down the Chuo Freeway I think it's in Tokyo.
It's really cool. And then I've got another guy, this guy lives in New York and he's on his bike and he's riding his bike through New York City.
So you can, if you're watching the videos, if you're a member, watch these videos and just be in Tokyo for a couple minutes.
And be in New York City for a couple minutes.
Chuo freeway, Yumi Arai.
And I beg your pardon by Khan Khan coming up after we check out the news stories one more time.
Here we go. In a scene straight out of a cartoon, a 30 year old elephant wandered out of a park and into a grocery store in northeastern Thailand.
The gentle giant helped himself to nine bags of sweet rice crackers, a sandwich and dried bananas, leaving behind only muddy footprints.
After his shopping spree he calmly exited the store still holding a bag of treats with his trunk.
In Australia A 27‑year‑old courier re‑routed 80 packages to his home with plans to sell them online.
After realizing he was in over his head, he returned the parcels and confessed.
He called it a stupid decision due to financial stress.
And finally, Oliver Widger, 29, from Oregon quit his corporate job, bought a boat and set sail to Hawaii with no sailing experience.
His travel buddy, a cat named Phoenix.
After 25 days, they arrived safely in Waikiki after what he called a long and educational journey.
Where 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 coach Shane here cats on boats, does that sound crazy?
No, no, no. No cats have been seafaring companions for thousands of years even in ancient Egypt They brought cats on board. Why to control the rats.
Yeah, they still do it today cats are natural climbers and Surprisingly agile on moving ships That makes total sense Country Shane and they're low maintenance right?
You need a litter litter box.
They don't eat too much They get the rats and the mice if that's a problem on a ship They have good balance cuz you know the waves you go back and forth, but cats are very that's really smart You know, when I think of sailing if I have to think of an animal, I think of the parrot, right?
Like the pirates and the parrots, P -A -R -R -O -T, but a cat is a much smarter pet to have board a boat.
That makes so much sense.
Another request song coming at ya!
P -O -D's alive! Simple tips for mastering English.
Do you remember the eight steps for an adult to master English?
Do you remember that?
We went over those eight steps, took us nine podcasts to do that.
One of these steps, step six, was learning daily English.
And part of daily English, what does that mean?
Well, part of it is phrasal verbs.
So you have a verb, an action verb, like give, G -I -V -E, give.
Give me money. Give me time.
Give me love. Give me hope.
Right, give, G -I -V -E.
and then we have a participle or a preposition like up UP up up in the air but when we take that action verb give and that participle up and we put them together we have give up that is a phrasal verb now do you know what the verb give up means yeah I mean stop trying but wait it has a lot of possible meanings, okay?
So watch this, she gave up trying to fix the machine.
She stopped trying, trying to fix the machine.
Isn't English weird?
She gave up trying to fix the machine.
To give up means to stop trying.
So I love the sentence.
She gave up, she stopped trying, trying to fix the machine.
So actually what we say she gave up trying to fix the machine or she stopped trying to fix the machine Yeah, stop trying.
That's what it means gave up But another meaning to stop a habit or an activity he gave up smoking last year he quit Another meaning to surrender especially to the police the thief gave himself up to the police A fourth definition, to offer something, but you don't want to.
For example, they gave up their seats for the elderly.
Another example, I was sitting on the bus.
I was really tired.
Oh, it was so nice to sit.
And then some grandmother got on the bus and I'm like, oh, man, even though I'm tired, I should give up my seat to the grandmother because she's a grandmother.
And I didn't want to.
But that's the idea to offer something, but unwillingly.
A fifth definition of give up, to abandon hope, or to abandon a person, or hope for a person.
So, doctors gave him up for dead after the accident.
It's terrible. Number 6, to devote time to, or to sacrifice time to, time, energy, space.
She gave up her weekend to help with the fundraiser Every weekend she likes to relax and meet her friends, but somebody asked for help So she gave up her weekend to help with the fundraiser.
It's very nice Another definition this is number 7 to confess or to reveal something the suspect Gave up the names of the other guilty people.
The suspect gave up the names of his accomplices.
One more. Eight. The eighth definition of to give up.
To let go emotionally.
He gave up on their relationship long before they split.
This is true. If you know anybody who, you know, boyfriend, girlfriend...
Not really, but husband, wife, the divorce issue, a lot of couples get divorced, but already three months, six months, two years, five years, they've been separated.
Just legally married.
So in this situation, he gave up on their relationship long before they split, long before they separated.
So, give up. I just gave you eight different definitions of give up.
How do you memorize these?
Don't. You need to see them being used.
You need to hear them being used.
The good news is, we use all eight definitions every day, all the time.
If you just listen to English TV shows and podcasts and stuff like that, listen to conversations, you will hear give up but the problem is you know give up or you thought you did so when your brain hears give up your brain automatically says oh we know that don't worry but actually you don't know you didn't know there's nuance there's actual specific meanings to give up depending on the situation.
The way I explain it is this.
You want to learn daily English, right?
But the problem is you don't know what you don't know.
You see the phrasal verb, give up, and you say to yourself, oh give up, I know that, But actually you don't.
Do you understand what I mean?
I'll say it again. You don't know what you don't know.
This is what I teach. I know that most of you will not know a specific definition of a phrasal verb or a specific usage of the word get or sometimes a specific meaning of the word them.
You know the word them.
You know the word get, you know the words give up, you know them, but actually you don't know how they're being used This is the problem This is what we teach in DDM.
Actually, we teach it in DDM and my English camp I really would love for you to join them if you're not a member of DDM or if you're not a member of English camp What is your problem?
You can try a lesson for free.
Just send us an email contact at letsmasterenglish .com And we'll hook you up alright to give up!
Don't give up studying English very important Here's the song.
It kind of related to give up.
It's Heaven17 with Let Me Go Weekly speaking challenge Last week our topic was my favorite drink Sia Jiang from China.
Oh avocados, banana and milk.
My favorite drink is that I mix an avocado, banana with milk.
Squeeze them together.
It's delicious and kind of nutritious.
I drink it when I can buy a perfect avocado because it's hard to buy perfect one in my place.
That sounds really good Sia.
I like it. The questions were, what is your favorite drink?
When do you usually have it?
And why do you like it?
Jeon from Korea, raspberries, lemons and cold water and sometimes on the weekends.
I love mixing raspberry lemonade drink mix with cold water.
When I get hungry while working, I take little sips.
I think it tastes way better than just plain water.
I keep going back to it.
And in the evening, I love adding a bit of soju into it at dinner.
Ah, that sounds good too.
Thank you so much ladies.
You want your recording in this podcast?
then you got to send it.
But we have a new question, a new theme for this week.
This week's theme is, what do you do on Sundays?
So, three questions.
What time do you wake up?
Do you go out or stay home?
Usually, if you think about your perfect Sunday, do you go out or do you stay home?
Is Sunday a relaxing day or a busy one?
That's it. So I have an example and this is not true, it's just an example because my my Sundays are like every day I don't have a weekend my Monday is a Wednesday is a Thursday is a Friday they're all the same but in a perfect world this is my Sunday on Sundays I sleep in I usually have breakfast with my family and then we go to the park or watch a movie?
Wow. That's a dream.
Is it possible? If, and I mean, you got to understand the situation.
You're married, I'm married and I have two boys, four or five years old, or I'm sorry, five years old and seven years old.
And I run a business that never, that always needs me.
It, this is impossible.
It's a dream. Do you have, so the question is, what do you do on Sundays?
What time do you wake up?
Do you go out or stay at home?
Is Sunday a relaxing day or a busy one?
Those are the questions.
Keep your answers to 10 seconds to 20 seconds, that's perfect.
This is not easy. The speaking challenge, the questions are easy.
The speaking challenge question, very simple.
But the point of the speaking challenge is for you to answer these three questions in a short amount of time.
10 seconds, 20 seconds, that's it.
That is not easy and you need to have good pronunciation, you know, I mean, if we can hear your nationality through your pronunciation, that's not good, right?
Oh, that guy, he's from so and so, yeah.
Yeah, so this takes some skill, so take part.
Now it's your turn.
Record your answer and post it in our school community.
Listening to others is going to help you grow so much. Because we're all talking about the same thing, it's easier.
And by the way, people are posting pictures too.
Sia, is it Sia or Sia?
I don't ever know. And, they had pictures of their drinks.
Okay, it's so much easier to understand.
If you're not in my school community, send an email.
Contact at let's master English .com and say I would like to be a member of the let's master English podcast community.
All right, Sunday morning, Maroon 5.
It is June 16th, the 167th day of the year.
There are 198 days left in 2025.
Important upcoming dates.
Some celebrations June 16th.
National Fresh Veggies Day!
Do you like fresh veggies?
You know as I get older more and more I love raw vegetables.
Oh just raw! I cooked is great but raw like lettuce and and What else do I eat?
Cabbage? Broccoli? Raw Broccoli?
Like sprouts? Raw Sprouts?
What else? Avocado?
Raw? Radishes? Raw?
Right from the ground, give me a radish!
Beans? Yeah! I'll have beans!
Raw! Off the vine! Corn?
Give me... Yes! Raw!
Tomatoes! Of course!
Anyway, tomorrow, June 17th, is Global Garbage Man Day.
Say hi, say thanks, to your garbage man tomorrow.
June 18th is International Picnic Day.
The last time I had a picnic, I remember, actually, it was in 2014.
It was my wife and I right after we bought a car.
We bought a car together, a tiny, little car, But it was great and we decided to go have a picnic and it was miserable because there were too many flies too many flies It's the last I don't like flies.
I do not like flies So no more picnics for me.
Yeah, June 19th Garfield the cat date.
Do you guys know Garfield the cat?
Garfield has a favorite dish.
What is it? June 20th is National Ice Cream Soda Day.
Have you ever mixed ice cream with soda?
If you haven't, do it.
Coca Cola and vanilla ice cream, excellent combination.
Do you have root beer?
Do you know root beer soda?
That's even better.
But what you do is you take a glass, it can be a coffee cup, a glass, you take a spoon or two spoons or three spoons, big scoops of ice cream.
And then you pour Coca Cola over that.
And then you eat that.
You drink it with a straw, you eat it with a spoon.
It is so delicious.
June 20th is your day.
June 21st is International Yoga Day.
Do you do yoga? Good for you.
And finally, June 22nd is National Onion Rings Day.
They're like french fries.
They're fried, but they're onions.
Oh, no, onion rings are delicious.
Speaking of ice cream.
Ice cream soda day.
June 20th. There is a song by a band called Chicago and they're actually singing about Saturday in the park, but they're referring my, my understanding is they're talking about New York city's central park.
So it's a band called Chicago singing about New York city's central park, Saturday in the park.
I think it was the 4th of July.
It's a great song. They talk about some ice cream and everything else and joy Celebrity birthdays this week if it's your birthday, happy birthday to you your anniversary something special I sincerely wish you the best Today June 16th is Phil Mickelson's birthday.
He's a professional golfer.
He's 55 personally, I do love golf and yesterday, it's still today for me, Sunday, we had the US Open Golf Tournament.
It was amazing. It was a fantastic tournament.
JJ Spahn won the tournament.
It incredibly difficult course.
It was pretty exciting.
Does if you like golf, I know some of you do.
Hajime, I know. Loves golf.
It's fantastic. Uh moving from golf to tennis, June 17th, tomorrow, Venus Williams, tennis superstar is forty -five.
June 18th, Paul McCartney is 83 years old.
Of course, the lead singer from the Beatles, but a very famous singer all together.
Blake Shelton, 49 years old.
Last week in the Let's Master English podcast, we had a request song, Texas, from Blake Shelton, and I wanted to play another one of his songs.
He's got so many great songs.
But anyway, happy birthday, Blake.
June 19th, Paula Abdul started out as a dancer, Ended up as a singer 63 years old today June 20th Nicole Kidman 58 years old Lionel Richie Is 76 years old?
Oh, he's got us he's got a Sunday song Sunday morning easy easy like Sunday morning That's a good song if you know that he's 76 again, June 21st, Prince William is 43 years old He's famous for nothing except being born.
That's why he's famous he was born.
Pshh. Chris Pratt is 46 years old.
We just studied Chris Pratt in DDM.
If you're a DDM VIP member, we talked about the nineties and there was some young woman, and Chris Pratt, he was in that.
We just studied him.
His birthday is on June 21st. Happy birthday.
June 22nd, actress Meryl Streep is 76 years old and singer Cyndi Lauper is 72.
Cindy lopper is a bit weird. She's like she's kind of like Phoebe in friends a little bit Not normal But I love her music.
So I got a couple of songs for the ladies Paula Abdul's Promise of a new day you guys the world's crazy these days right what's going on?
There's just a lot of craziness and it can be kind of scary but the promise of a new day It's nice and Cyndi Lauper's all through the nights.
I love these songs.
I hope you'll enjoy that And that brings us to the end of another Let's Master English podcast number 125 I hope you enjoy it.
Please share the only way that this grows and Is if you share it's the only way I make this for you, and I really love the interaction I love to hear from you, and the easiest way is to just join my community.
Okay? We're not gonna hurt you.
You don't have to spend any money.
Send an email. Contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
It's free, you get everything, and we'll, it's so much fun, so enjoy that.
Please do that, okay?
And if you want, join my lessons.
If you're serious about English, speaking or listening, or both, join my lessons.
Oh, and I do have an announcement.
To all my current members, all my current members in my community, we have our summer sale.
Summer sale coming up probably this week.
Yeah, I think we'll start the summer sale this week.
It is a massive discount.
It's a six month registration.
So if you sign up for the summer sale, you get classes from July all the way through December.
So whether it's perf VIP or DDM VIP or both, you are paid in full for six full months.
Now what a lot of people do, the smart people, they save a lot of money so you can get this only if you're a member right now.
You have to be in the community.
That starts this week.
So your membership ends in December.
You have to understand that, your membership will end in December.
But, the other really good news is in October, I have an even bigger sale.
But if you buy lessons in October, they don't start until January.
So this is perfect.
This is an excellent time to right now, save money on six months of learning.
And then in October, prepare for 2026 and save even more money for the entire year.
So this is what the smart people do, I'm letting you know in advance.
Today, once again, it's Monday, the publishing date, but I'm actually recording this on June 15th, Sunday, it's Father's Day.
I have two boys. They said Happy Father's Day and then they asked me to cook lunch. They don't care.
I love my two boys.
But, people ask me, would you like to have a daughter?
Yeah, of course. I think it would be nice to have a daughter, just one.
But I don't. And I'm a little old now, so I don't think I'll ever have my own daughter.
There's a song that is about daughters and it's like a Father's Day type song.
It's perfect. It's absolutely perfect for Father's Day.
I've got the video and it shows the band members with their children, specifically with their daughters.
It's a great, beautiful video.
I hope that you really enjoy it.
And if you are a father, Happy Father's Day again.
It was Sunday. And if you have sons like me, you can still enjoy the song.
It's Blue Octobers.
Oh my my, have a fantastic week.
And together, let's master English.
range.
