Hello and welcome to another episode of Real Easy English, the podcast where we have everyday conversations in easy English.
I'm Phil.
And I'm Beth.
You can watch a video version of this podcast on our website, where you can turn on subtitles to read along as you listen.
That's at bbclearningenglish.com Hi Beth, how are you?
I'm scared.
How are you?
Terrified.
It's Halloween today and that's what we're going to be talking about in this podcast.
Yes, Halloween is a holiday. all about scary things like ghosts and monsters.
So yeah, shall we get started?
Yeah, I think we should, if you're brave enough.
Okay, Beth, I know you're scared today, but do you generally enjoy Halloween?
I really like Halloween because of the dressing up.
So fancy dress.
You see all of the children and adults dressing up in fun costumes, scary costumes.
In the uk and i have a lot of memories of dressing up um, as all sorts of weird and scary things when i was a child.
I have to ask what was your favorite costume?
So my mum made me a pumpkin outfit and it had two holes for my arms and one for my head and it was very big and puffy.
I looked very round like a big orange pumpkin and I wore it as a child.
But then when I went to university,
It was a bit small, but I wore it again and I wore a skirt with it.
So it's been used twice for Halloween.
It's a good costume.
It's not bad going.
I remember once dressing up as a devil.
I had little red horns, a bit of elastic stuck on my head.
Yeah, sounds good.
Sounds good.
Do you do anything to celebrate Halloween these days now?
Not so much for me, more for my children.
They really like it, especially when they were a little bit younger.
Where we used to live...
Lots of houses in the neighborhood would put pumpkins outside and would decorate and people would go trick or treating.
That's where you go up to someone's house in a scary costume and you knock on the door and say trick or treat.
And then, well, if they say treat, they give you a sweet.
Yep.
If I say trick, you're supposed to play a trick on them.
But I don't think anyone really does now.
No, I don't think so.
I used to love trick or treating.
We would go round my village and collect a lot of sweets.
But now I don't do any trick or treating.
The children come to our house and then we give them sweets.
But it's always really nice to see people getting in that Halloween spirit and it's cold or quite cold outside in the autumn.
And it's yeah, it's a nice feeling when it's Halloween.
It's a good celebration.
Yeah, it's when it really starts to get dark in the evenings and a little bit cold and it just feels like.
A different time of year, doesn't it?
So Halloween in the UK is all about spooky things.
Spooky means strange and a bit scary.
Is there anything else spooky that you like?
Oh, I like hearing ghost stories or maybe watching horror films.
Oh, horror films.
I don't like horror films.
They make me want to hide behind my sofa with a cushion because I don't like the scary music.
You always think what's going to happen next?
All the suspense, just waiting for something bad to happen.
And no.
Horror films are not for me.
OK, let's recap the language that we've heard today, starting with Halloween.
And this is a holiday that happens on the 31st of October.
And it's all about scary or spooky things.
Yes, spooky means strange or scary.
In the UK, people often wear fancy dress for Halloween.
And fancy dress is where you wear something to make you look like someone or something else.
And we can also say dress up.
So, for example, when I was younger, I dressed up as a pumpkin for Halloween.
Another thing that happens in the UK at Halloween is trick-or-treating, and that's when children dress up and then go to people's houses to get sweets.
And we also heard horror film.
A horror film is a film that is frightening scary.
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.
Do you have Halloween or a similar celebration in your country?
Tell us about it.
And practice the vocabulary that you've learnt in this episode with our free worksheets on our website, bbclearningenglishcom.
That's all for now.
Bye.
Bye.
