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this is the let's master english podcast and i'm your host coach shane hello everybody this is coach shane and we're back with another let's master english podcast number 109 the release date of this podcast i'm looking at my calendar is monday february 24th 2025 we've got three excellent news stories
actually they're funny i tried to choose some funny stuff country shane has an amazing fact if you like dogs this is like really really interesting we got the dates the observances the national holidays the celebrity birthdays and if you're a member we've got the best music the closing the opening song
and the closing song are so related, but the opening song came out days ago.
It's completely new.
Very, very new song.
It came out a week ago, maybe two weeks ago.
And the closing song came out 30 years ago.
But basically the message is kind of the same.
And it's about life.
You and I, we might live in different countries.
You might be Russian.
You communist. You might be Chinese.
You red. You might be Brazilian.
What are you doing down there?
You might be German.
Oh, yeah. You've got a very bad past.
No, that's not true.
It's where we were born, right?
That's where we were born.
You and I, we're the same.
I want a job. I want a job I like.
I want to get married.
I want to have kids.
I want my family to be healthy and happy.
I'd like to have a house.
I'd like to have a car.
I look forward to vacation.
I want to have a retirement and I want to be comfortable and happy, right?
Where we were born, that's fate, right?
But who we are, that's reality and you and I we might have a different language we might have a different religion we might have a different political system behind us we have different experiences we might eat different food we might sing different songs we might celebrate different holidays but at the end
of the day I love my wife I love my children I like my job I'm lucky I like my job But I have a job and I work to have a house, to be happy and healthy.
We're all the same.
We're all the same.
So with that, we got an excellent podcast.
And again, if you are a member, be a member.
It's too easy. Contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
Send an email. Just say, I want to be a member.
Contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
And then you will be able to hear these fantastic songs that can kind of help us enjoy and unite.
Well, that's my opening.
So if you're not a member, we're going straight to the news.
Great three news stories.
But if you are, enjoy a completely brand new song by Tom McDonald.
He's famous for I Wish, which is also a great song.
But this is entitled Man in the Sky.
A Tokyo restaurant has introduced a fully automated A .I.
sushi chef. And customers are intrigued.
The robot named Suki can prepare 12 different types of sushi in seconds with precision that rivals human chefs.
While some diners love the efficiency, traditional sushi masters say art cannot be automated.
would you try robot made sushi just like last week right in an attempt to break a bizarre guinness world record a man in canada successfully put on 260 t -shirts at the same time weighing over 150 pounds in total it took him two hours to layer up and he nearly passed out from the heat before completing
the challenge and finally a labrador mix in portugal believed to be the world's oldest dog at 31 years old just celebrated his birthday with a custom cake dog -friendly champagne and over 100 guests his secret to longevity lots of naps belly rubs and home -cooked meals.
Aww, so cute. So the first story is, like, the exact same story last week, except last week it was Italy and pizza.
This week it's Japan and sushi.
Do you like sushi? Do you like raw fish?
My favorite is, and I hope my pronunciation is correct, nigiri, which is, like, the raw fish and rice.
oh I love that combination a little wasabi uh soy sauce and I know the way everybody listen there is a proper way in Japan to eat sushi and if you eat sushi wrong you're like a redneck you're like oh my god this guy must be American oh it's so country there is a proper way and I do not eat sushi the proper
way, but I don't care.
I like it. I don't care.
I like it the way I, you know, use wasabi and sushi and, and the rice and the soy sauce.
I like it. So I'm happy and it's expensive.
So I only have it occasionally.
So if there's an AI robot that makes cheap sushi, i'll probably get it because i don't care i eat it like a country boy t -shirts i love my t -shirts that's an amazing story and the world's oldest dog i'll talk about my dog let's go to the first story a tokyo restaurant no problem tokyo restaurant has introduced
a fully automated completely automatic AI artificial intelligence sushi chef.
Wow. A robot. And customers are intrigued.
They're interested.
Oh, let me see. Let me see this AI sushi chef.
The robot named Suki.
Of course, you have to name the robot Suki, Sushi, Suki.
Okay, cool. I have a question to my Japanese listeners, Suki to me sounds like a female name.
Is it female or male?
Or is it like non -binary?
When I think of a sushi chef, I always imagine a guy.
But I could be wrong.
I have no idea. Yeah.
So Suki to me sounds like a female.
Anyway, the robot named Suki can prepare 12 different types of sushi in seconds, super, super fast, with precision, accuracy that rivals, that is better than or very competitive to human chefs.
So like I said earlier, in Japan, sushi, if you go to a good restaurant, sushi is an art.
how to cut it, the thickness, the freshness, the quality, which sauce, how much sauce, the order of the sauce or the wasabi, the amount, where to put the wasabi.
Everything is an art form.
It's like the Japanese tea ceremony.
Have you heard about the Japanese green tea ceremony?
Oh, my God. It's amazing.
It's very detailed.
It's very intricate.
It's very precise. Step by step by step, everything is perfect.
I like sumo wrestling.
And if you watch sumo wrestling, everything they do is precise.
Step by step by step.
That makes Japan very interesting.
So when it comes to sushi, there are steps, precise steps.
and now they use a robot.
Wow. That makes sense, right?
If something has an SOP, a standard operating procedure, if there are clear steps to doing something, then a computer or AI or a robot should be able to do that perfectly, right?
I mean, look at a McDonald's restaurant.
If you go to McDonald's pretty much in any country, everything tastes basically the same because there's a step -by -step precise method.
Anyway, yeah, as good as humans, if not better than humans.
While some diners, some people who are eating sushi love the efficiency.
Oh, it's very quick.
It's very nice. traditional sushi masters say art cannot be automated what do you think you know if you use ai for example on twitter they have grok or in america the big one is what is it chat gpt there's a deep seek there are so many different ai platforms out there These AI things can create art.
They can create pictures.
They can create stories.
They can create poems.
They're very creative.
But is that art? I mean, if you look at modern art, some modern art is stupid.
Do you remember the modern art where some artist taped a banana to a wall?
and that was like millions of dollars if you ask me that's stupid I don't see it as art that's just my opinion I don't see it as art AI definitely can do better than a banana taped to a wall but could it paint a Rembrandt could it sculpt a Michelangelo could it write a Hemingway?
I don't know. I don't think so.
The nice thing about humans is we have that soul, S -O -U -L, or we have that human quality, which is unpredictable, but not insane.
I don't think AI has that AI is good I love AI and I use AI to help me be creative but art can't be automated I think that's true even in food you know what I like to say Homemade food Is the best Why?
Because somebody's Hands H -A -N -D -S Were in the food And that energy from the hands If the person making the food Loved you If they were like your mom And she loves you And she made the food with her hands That love is in the food If you ask me so yeah i kind of i would try ai sushi but can arts be automated
i don't think so what do you think the next story some guy some crazy canadian lots of canadians are crazy more americans are much crazier but this guy is crazy in an attempt to break a bizarre a crazy a weird a strange Guinness World Record there's a world record of what a man in Canada successfully
oh congratulations he did it put on war w o r e war 260 t -shirts at the same time wow um okay that sounds like kind of stupid right whatever he's famous now he's in Let's Master English podcast, right?
I don't have his name, but anyway, 260.
Now, right now, I'm wearing a t -shirt.
I'm wearing a t -shirt.
And I have lots of t -shirts.
I love my t -shirts.
I have t -shirts from college.
I went to college, everybody, in early 1990s.
I graduated in 1992.
So I know one of my t -shirts is from 1992.
Oh, no, no. I have older t -shirts.
I have a t -shirt from 1988, perhaps 1987.
I love my t -shirts.
But when I wear a t -shirt, I just wear one.
There's no need to wear two.
Why on earth would you wear three?
But this guy wore 260 t -shirts at the same time and it was heavy weighing over 150 pounds in total 150 pounds now i'm gonna multitask and look up what this is in kilograms and of course i can't find my windows where is my windows okay so so bear with me 150 pounds in kilograms jeez i'm so slow 150 pounds
in kilograms 68 kilograms 68 kilograms that's how much the t -shirts wore it took him two hours to put them on except they used a phrasal verb to layer up such a great expression it's winter right now where i live so when you go outside you need to layer up that means you need to wear several layers
of clothes. A T -shirt, a sweater, a jacket, and a scarf, and a hat.
You need to wear several layers.
And this guy wore 260 T -shirts so he layered up.
It took him two hours to layer up and he nearly passed out.
Passed out. Fell asleep but not when you want to.
Why did he pass out from the heat?
It was so hot. He nearly fainted.
He nearly fainted. He nearly passed out before completing the challenge.
But he was successful.
Good job, Canada man.
And finally, our last story.
Very nice. I don't know if you can hear, but I have a German shepherd puppy.
His name is Moose. He's two and a half years old.
he's two and a half years old, but still considered a puppy.
The boy is big. He's huge.
He's crazy. It's very difficult.
We love him, but he's a tough dog.
That's a German shepherd.
Very smart dog, if trained.
Well, this is a story about a Labrador.
Many times we just say a lab.
It's like a golden retriever, very similar to a retriever.
But this is a Labrador.
Usually a Labrador is black and short hair.
Beautiful dog. Good hunting dog.
Very, very nice dog.
Good with family. Good with children.
A Labrador mix, meaning it was a Labrador dog, but not 100%.
There was something else.
Dogs can kind of get mixed up.
A Labrador mix in Portugal, the country of Portugal.
Beautiful. Believed to be the world's oldest dog.
How old? At 31 years old.
31 years old oh my god that's older than some of you just celebrated his birthday with a custom cake a specially designed cake i'm guessing the menu was liver dog friendly champagne do not give your dogs alcohol but this was dog friendly champagne meaning it was champagne, but actually not really champagne,
probably just water, but they called it champagne.
And over 100 guests.
Oh my God. Think about that.
If you had your birthday party today, how many guests would come?
Do you think 100 people would come to your party for me nobody would come no one my wife she'd like spend two minutes with me my boys would say where is my present nobody would come to my birthday this dog had a hundred guests wow anyway world's oldest dog 31 years old what is his secret to longevity
how is he able to live so long the answer lots of naps ooh naps n -a -p -s i love naps belly rubs rubbing his tummy oh it's a good boy it's a good boy and home cooked meals well i'll tell you of those three things i'm doing good i take a nap every day uh and my wife cooks my meals but i don't get any belly
rubs. So I need to ask my wife for belly rubs.
Those are the three stories.
All three of these stories, the full script is in our community.
You want to be a member of our community?
Join us. Send an email.
Contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
You get the full script and you get the music.
Oh, music coming up is so good.
We've got a t -shirt, a song called t -shirt by chantelle very cool 2009 around then and then uh talking about sushi harry styles if you know him has a song called sushi but i don't like that song but i do like harry so we've got late night talking that's coming up after we check out the news stories one
more time here we go a tokyo restaurant has introduced a fully automated ai sushi chef and customers are intrigued, the robot named Suki can prepare 12 different types of sushi in seconds with precision that rivals human chefs.
While some diners love the efficiency, traditional sushi masters say art can't be automated.
Would you try robot made sushi?
In an attempt to break a bizarre Guinness World Record, a man in Canada successfully put on 260 t -shirts at the same time, weighing over 150 pounds in total.
It took him two hours to layer up, and he nearly passed out from the heat before completing the challenge.
And finally, a Labrador mix in Portugal, believed to be the world's oldest dog at 31 years old just celebrated his birthday with a custom cake, dog -friendly champagne, and over 100 guests.
His secret to longevity?
Lots of naps, belly rubs, and home -cooked meals.
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.
Boy, howdy, everybody.
I got an interesting fact about dogs.
Check this out. I'm sorry.
If you're eating, you might want to stop eating, just for a second here.
When dogs poop, they align themselves with the Earth's magnetic field, especially along the north -south axis.
so Coach Shane has a dog named Moose if Coach Shane doesn't know where he is he can ask Moose to go poo -poo and then Moose is gonna go poo -poo and maybe his nose will point to the north and his butt will point to the south or maybe it's the other way anyway he can know which is north and south because of his dog
because Moose is a genius no one knows why they do this.
It's just a fact. Wow, that is interesting.
That is really, really interesting.
You know, there are some interesting things about animals that humans don't know or understand.
Animals have those special senses.
They can sense things.
In the future, we need to do a story about cats, because cats have a very, very interesting sense of things, too.
And I want to share that with you in the future.
But there you go. Your dog, not when it goes pee -pee.
When it goes poo -poo, it will align itself with the north -south axis, A -X -I -S.
Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
uh to to close out this corner we have a great song the singer is blake shelton country singer and he's got a song i'll name the dogs okay now remember everybody if you have the full music version i'm including the lyrics of all the songs so it's fantastic you can actually watch the lyrics if you have the video
if you have the mp3 obviously there's no lyrics but you can get the video also.
And this song is really cool.
It's really nice. It's actually a song about saying let's get married.
So guys, this is actually a very romantic song and one of the verses is I'll Name the Dogs.
It's really cool. So if you're a member, enjoy the song.
If not, we're moving on.
Last week, I told you the eight steps to mastering English as an adult.
Step number one, fixed pronunciation.
Step number two, sentence intonation.
Step number three, master rhythm.
Step number four, flow.
Step number five, listening.
Step number six, daily English.
Step number seven, vocabulary.
And step number eight, grammar.
Today, I'm going to talk about pronunciation.
Pronunciation is crucial.
If your pronunciation is no good, I can't understand you and I don't want to listen to you.
Don't speak. Send me an email.
If your pronunciation is no good, we're not going to build a connection.
maybe we can build a business connection, right?
Just send emails. But a true connection, friendship, partnership, relationship requires face -to -face communication.
It requires you to speak and me to listen and me to speak and you to listen for us to actually communicate.
And pronunciation is key.
Now, let me be honest.
If you come to America and you go to Starbucks, nobody cares about pronunciation.
McDonald's, nobody cares about pronunciation.
Walmart, nobody cares about pronunciation.
Now, you might have problems, but nobody cares.
However, if you're in a business situation or in a professional situation, everybody will care about pronunciation.
What happens is kind of sad.
that, let's say you're speaking English, right, and your grammar is pretty good, and your vocabulary is pretty good, but your pronunciation is bad, and this is a professional situation, okay, business situation, for example, the foreigner, the American, the native English speaker, when they listen to
you and they hear your bad pronunciation, that's the only thing they hear.
Bad English. So if you make a grammar mistake, we hear that.
And if you make a vocabulary mistake, we hear that.
Pronunciation is your face.
It's your reputation.
It's your, you know, don't judge a book by its cover, it's your cover, and we judge.
People do. That's reality.
So, if your pronunciation is not good, everything goes downhill fast.
But the interesting thing, if your grammar is not so good, and your vocabulary, not great, but your pronunciation is very clear.
We think you're a genius.
Let me explain. Again, you are talking to me in English and I'm listening to you and I'm saying to myself, because I listen to you and I say to myself, I understand everything you are saying.
And you obviously, because you have an accent, you have a Chinese accent, you have a French accent, you have a Russian accent, you have a Portuguese accent, whatever.
But I understand everything you are saying.
And obviously you are not a native English speaker.
And you're Chinese and oh my God, Chinese is like an impossible language.
Wow. You are so smart.
You obviously speak Chinese.
You obviously have a professional background, a job, and you speak my language and I do not speak your language.
Wow. Respect. If your pronunciation is clear, we're not going to hear the grammar mistakes.
We're not going to hear the vocabulary mistakes.
Now, do you want to fix vocabulary?
Do you want to fix grammar?
of course but it starts with pronunciation that's how powerful it is i have a guy i think he's from mexico and he's studied with me now for a year and a half he stays because he's having fun but he lives in america and he has a plumbing business you know pipes toilets sinks that type of business and he
started his own business congratulations in the beginning though all All of his customers were Mexicans.
They were Spanish speaking customers, all of them.
And he had time for more customers, but he couldn't get other customers.
So he came to me because he knew the problem was English.
So he came to me and we fixed his pronunciation.
His pronunciation is not perfect, but that's okay.
His pronunciation is now great.
It's very good. There's no question what he is saying.
And now, he's got so many foreign or native English speaking, American English speaking customers.
His business is growing.
He's expanding. He used to do just houses, you know, like fix your toilet and fix your sink.
Now, he's doing new construction and new buildings, new plumbing.
That's so much better and bigger money.
his business has exploded why because he took the time to fix his english pronunciation was it easy nope that was tough he started off with our eight week speaking course and then he joined perf personal he's very serious because he knew that was the problem i have another student uh an indian man pharmacist
florida very similar situation life -changing experiences when you master your pronunciation okay pronunciation is so important everybody like I said in a casual situation at McDonald's nobody cares but if you're a professional if you want to have a good reputation it all starts with pronunciation And
I'm here for you. If you're interested in joining my eight -week speaking course, or if you're interested in joining my personal, let me know.
Send me an email. I will get back to you, or maybe John, somebody will get back to you.
One of my team, probably John, will get back to you.
My email address, contact at letsmasterenglish .com.
Oh, speaking of talking, we got to listen to a song, The Romantics Talking in Your Sleep.
It is Monday, February 24th, the 55th day of the year, 311 days remaining in 2025.
Twelve days until daylight saving time begins.
ends. That's in America when we change our clocks.
It's, I don't know what's going on.
Please, we need to stop this.
So many countries do not change their clocks, but America is one of the dumb countries that does that.
I love America. America's smart, but why do we still do it?
It's stupid. Sorry.
20 days left until St.
Patrick's Day. I'm Irish.
I will do something.
And 54 days left until Easter.
February 24th is National Tortilla Chip Day.
Do you like tortilla chips, corn chips?
Great with nachos. Oh, the best Mexican food, nachos, tacos.
I love that stuff. Tomorrow, February 25th, National Clam Chowder Day.
So I live in the Northeast, not too far from Boston and Clam Chowder in Boston is very delicious.
It's a very famous soup.
Clam chowder soup. Delicious.
February 26th is Tell a Fairy Tale Day.
So many of you probably know a fairy tale.
Cinderella. Do you know Cinderella?
That is a fairy tale.
Snow White. Snow White and the seven dwarfs that is a fairy tale but there are so many other fairy tales in so many different countries that are so interesting i'd love to hear about a fairy tale from your country february 27th is international polar bear day those boys are big february 28th the last
day of the month public sleeping day yeah this is real i love it public sleeping day just go outside and sleep.
Don't do it where I live.
It's too cold. You'll freeze.
March 1st is World Compliment Day.
That's great. Give a compliment to somebody.
Just anybody. Just say something nice.
It's World Compliment Day.
We should do that every day, but especially on March 1st.
All that world energy saying something nice to each other.
It's beautiful. And on March 2nd, it is Dr.
Seuss Day. Do you know Dr.
Seuss? In my DDM classes, if you're not a member, you should join.
We've studied Dr. Seuss.
And you know what? I think I need to do another DDM about Dr.
Seuss. Do you know the Christmas story, The Grinch?
That's originally a Dr.
Seuss story. Yeah, it's Dr.
Seuss Day. Read across America.
That's the whole idea.
So it's a great day to read.
And if you have children, read with your kids.
Isn't that nice? Every day is a great day to do great.
Every day is a great day to do great.
And Eminem actually kind of talks about that in his song, Lose Yourself.
So if you're a member, enjoy the song.
If not, birthday's coming up.
It's your birthday.
Is it anybody's birthday?
I don't know of anybody's birthday coming up.
But if it is, happy birthday to you.
February 24th, the late, great Steve Jobs would have been celebrating his birthday today.
The Apple co -founder.
Rashida Jones, born on February 25th.
So again, if you're in my DDM class, you know a little bit about a TV show called Parks and Wreck.
It is great. I actually bought the DVDs.
Rashida Jones is an actress in that.
February 26th, again, the late, great Johnny Cash would have celebrated his birthday.
Johnny Cash, a singer, mainly known for country music, until one of his last songs actually was a rock song.
It was a remake. We're going to listen to that.
It's an amazing song.
Johnny Cash made the music video to that song with his wife right before she passed away.
And the song reflects that she passes away.
It is incredible. If you watch the video, Hurt is the name of the song.
Oh, that song, if you're in tune, if you understand what he's saying, and I'm giving you the lyrics, if you remember, that song will make you cry.
It is amazing. February 27th, Elizabeth Taylor.
She would have celebrated her birthday.
Johnny Cash and Elizabeth Taylor were both born in 1932.
1932. My goodness. Johnny Cash died in 2003 and Elizabeth Taylor passed away in 2011, the same year that Steve Jobs died, 2011.
He was born in 1955.
Anyway, Elizabeth Taylor, many beautiful actress, very famous actress.
Many people said my mother looked like elizabeth taylor actually i think it was my mother who always told me she looks like or looked like elizabeth taylor mom you you were much more beautiful february 28th mario andretti race car driver uh love that guy his birthday march 1st the babes justin bieber
is 31 i hope he's okay and March 2nd Jon Bon Jovi of the band of course Bon Jovi he turns 63 years old we're going to listen to a little Bon Jovi and there's so many songs but I want to go back to kind of the beginning the first time I learned about Bon Jovi was with the song Runaway totally cool song
and like I said Johnny Cash with Hurt that's what's coming up otherwise the close is coming that's gonna wrap it up for today's podcast this week's podcast do you enjoy it do you like the podcast is it helping you are you learning anything would you please recommend the podcast again send me an email
just to say hi contact at letsmasterenglish .com I would love to see your messages I love it and uh yeah make requests and tell me your birthday things like that thank you so much everybody taking us out is a great classic song it's billy joel's we didn't start the fire now remember we started today's
podcast with tom mcdonald's man in the sky and billy joel's we didn't start the fire is kind of similar the the idea is you know the world has experienced so many terrible things you know wars and tragedies and everything but you didn't do it and I didn't do it you and I we're just regular people right
and we you and I we didn't start the fire beautiful song classic song if you're a member I hope you enjoy it if not become a member I'm serious what's your problem them contact at let'smasterenglish .com uh that's it everybody thank you so much enjoy it and i will talk to you next week oh don't forget
every day during the week we're rehashing e cubed right here on the let's master english podcast take care everybody bye
