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You're listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information visit teacherluke .co .uk Hello listeners, and welcome to this new episode of Luke's English Podcast, which is a podcast for learners of English around the world.
Are you a learner of English?
Are you around the world?
If the answer to both those questions is yes, then this podcast is for you.
It has been made specifically with you in mind to help you do more listening in English in order to help you improve your ability to understand and ultimately use this language.
If you are not from the world, if you're not from Earth, you could still listen to the show as well.
If you're an alien on a different planet, then maybe learning English could still be a good idea.
If you're planning to visit Earth and you want to contact the humans, it would be probably be a good idea to, to, eh, to be able to speak English as the international language of earth.
But anyway, um, nevermind that stuff about aliens.
In this episode, uh, you're going to listen to a conversation.
It's another conversation episode.
And this one features a guest. My guest today is Sarah Donnelly, my friend, who's been on this podcast a few times.
Um, Sarah, if you just go back into the episode archive, you can see that She has made several appearances over the years.
Sarah is a friend of mine from doing stand -up comedy.
Sarah does lots of different things, just like most people do.
She studied politics at university.
She works as an English teacher here in France.
And as well as that, she does stand -up.
In fact, that's a thing that she's been doing for quite a long time now.
She's She's back on the podcast to talk about her stand up special, which she recorded and has sort of published herself It's available now on YouTube a stand -up special I mean, you know often you get stand -up comedians do stand -up specials Which are then put on to Netflix or something or you get like Rick of Aces stand -up special or some some of the comedian and you'll be able to see their show on Netflix Sarah has done it herself this time, she paid for the recording, the editing, the whole lot did it all herself and it's available now on YouTube and you can watch it if you want.
It's called, The Only American in Paris.
And in this episode, we discuss some of the themes from Sarah's show, some of the things that she talks about in her stand -up special, namely the real experience of being a U .S. citizen living in Paris, and what Americans typically think of life in Paris versus the reality of it.
We do talk about Netflix.
We talk about the Netflix TV show Emily in Paris.
I don't know if you're aware of that.
It's a famous and successful TV show Emily in Paris, all about an American girl who goes to Paris.
We talk about that a little bit.
We talk about the pros and cons of living in the French capital.
Some bits about the political situation in the USA right now, just a little bit.
About learning French, about Sarah's successful learning of French. Plus, in the last, let's say, 30 minutes of the conversation, so pretty much the second half of the conversation, we do another classic British vs. American English vocabulary and pronunciation quiz, mostly focusing on pronunciation.
pronunciation. The differences in pronunciation between certain words, between British English and American English.
So conversation about cross cultural things, plus a bit of British and American English pronunciation as well.
It's a good episode.
Fun episode. It was really nice to have Sarah back on the show.
You can check out her stand -up special.
You'll find a link for it in the description.
It could be a good idea to watch that after listening to this episode.
But anyway, that's enough of an introduction.
I'll now let you get into the conversation with Sarah.
And here we go. Sarah Donnelly, welcome back onto the podcast. Hello.
Donnelly - Thank you, hello!
Storm - Very nice to have you back here.
Donnelly - I'm thrilled to be back.
I love coming. Storm - The last time...
again, it's too long ago.
Donnelly - Probably.
Well, it was warm. It was summertime.
And we had to close the window.
And I remember you were like, excuse the heat.
It does get warm in here.
It does, especially when you've got two anglophones just bellowing hot air.
Yeah, just talking a lot of hot air exactly coming out.
Yeah. There's an expression already.
There you go. A lot of hot air.
Meaning just, what is that?
Just nonsense. Yeah.
Just talking a lot of hot air.
Talking a lot of hot air.
You're just not saying much. And bellow.
I love that word. To bellow.
To bellow. Meaning?
It doesn't mean like, um, it's a tonality of how you're speaking.
And you're kind of just talking loudly and going on and on.
Makes me think of bellows.
You know what bellows are?
I don't know if you call them the same thing as you.
You know, if you have a fire in the fireplace and you need a thing to blow into the fire, those are called bellows.
And That's air! He's not been doing this for 15 -plus years for no reason.
Hill. That was you.
You tied that thread.
You threaded that one through, there.
Brinsfield. Bam! Welcome!
It's my podcast now.
Hill. Sarah's American English podcast. We're talking a lot of hot air with hot drinks, we're drinking our cups of tea, which is nice.
It's lovely to have you back.
I think it was about, I have to say, two and a half years ago, the last time you were on the show.
Can I share a couple of comments from the last time?
I would love to! You have the nicest listeners!
That's nice! You do!
He's like, well, it was all negative.
I've got one or two that are funny.
First of all, a month ago, the last episode is still getting some listens.
A month ago, Adonkey A Horse.
That's the name of the user.
I love the toilet talk.
Do you remember that?
I do! As I walked up today, I was like, one thing we can't talk about is that Turkish toilet.
Because there is a yeah, we went on a long conversation listen to the other episode.
There's a toilet at the end of the corridor which is sort of vaguely infamous on the podcast but guests often comment on it.
At the end of the corridor there's a toilet which serves all of the sort of places on this floor.
The ones that don't have toilets in their little apartment.
And it's a yes, it's a hole in the floor, Turkish style toilet.
We had a discussion about it.
So, I loved that toilet talk and love it more, after the Amber and Paul one.
Oh! Have I talked to our dear friends, Amber and Paul?
It's competing toilet talk.
Apparently. So, we initiated the toilet -based conversation for possibly 15 minutes the last time.
And then, Amber and Paul were on the show not that long afterwards, and somehow we picked up where we'd left off.
We went on for about 45 minutes on the subjects of the toilet and what people do in toilets.
Brinsfield - Let's just get to the comments.
Tune in, guys! Hartzell - It was fascinating, I have to say, including all of the secret things about why ladies take so long in the toilets, and why the queues are often so long.
Anyway, that that was very interesting.
Anyway, A Donkey, a Horse says, I love that toilet talk, and love it more after the Amber and Paul one.
And Sarah has a very beautiful and attractive voice.
Brinsfield -Oh, thank you, A Donkey, a Horse.
Mason -That's nice, isn't it?
Brinsfield -That is nice.
I don't often get that, when I'm around so many English people who have really classically beautiful voices.
Mason -Really? Brinsfield -Well, yes.
American people, we love the English accent.
I think around the world, most people, when they want to learn English, they want to go with the gold standard. An English accent.
I do! Am I? I don't know.
Yeah, you may well be right.
It's hard to tell, isn't it?
But I always feel like most people in the world learning English are probably learning American English.
They might be. Yeah.
Well maybe not in France.
It's definitely British English.
Yeah. In the school system, university system.
Yeah, I say it's definitely you think is that a fact?
I'm like, I'm not sure.
Definitely. Definitely.
Fifty percent sure about that.
Well, here's the thing.
Amber and I, you know, We all, you're fans.
You all know Amber, of course, and Amber's got a lovely voice, we all agree.
Amber has a beautiful voice.
If I could choose an accent, hers would be my choice.
That's the way it goes.
She's got a lovely voice.
We used to do a comedy show together.
And someone came up to us and they're like, wow, you guys are so great.
Amber, you have just such a beautiful voice.
And they were like, and you!
You're just so shrill.
It's a nice contrast. So shrill.
Shrill is another, that's a high -level vocab.
That's nice. That's a nice bit of vocab.
About voice tonality, again.
Yeah. But it's often, that was not a very nice thing that person said, in a way.
They were being nice to Amber, and, well, Amber, you've got a lovely voice, and you're just so shrill.
So it's a nice balance.
It's a backhanded compliment, as we say.
Yeah. Not... Shrill, though, I have to say, is often used in a kind of pejorative way.
Absolutely. For women.
Women's voice. Exactly.
It's like people complaining about women's voices.
They say they're shrill, meaning they're sort of a little higher pitched.
And annoying. But Donkey Horse disagrees.
Thank you so much. Very beautiful and attractive voice.
Yes. Tiago, a year ago, I really enjoy it when you bring people to your podcast, different accents and cultures.
It's fantastic for a learner.
Thanks, Luke. Oh yeah, that's great.
That's the idea, right?
American English and British English united in one episode.
You can compare and contrast. Yes, you can.
Luke Fatima something said, be serious please while talking.
Don't smile too much. I'm sorry.
I'm having a lot of fun.
I don't know if that's directed towards me or you.
Don't stop smiling.
Don't be happy, don't enjoy yourself.
We have to be serious when we're talking.
I can be serious but this is one of my long -time friends, come on.
Yeah, it's all right.
I'm sorry for being happy while we do something for you.
But anyway, not everyone agrees.
That's just Fatima.
Sorry, Fatima. JB - Well, maybe Fatima thinks that she's used to holding her professor at a very serious level and so she feels maybe, if we're having too much fun, how serious can we be about language learning?
But I'm sorry, we've already dropped a few great vocab words .ic guest is very nice and lovely woman.
Full energy. That's me, I am full energy.
Thanks a lot, my best teacher.
A smattering of comments there from last time.
So Sarah, we don't have all that much time.
We probably need to cut some of the chitchat and get down to business.
We need to cut the chat, so we can start more chit -chat, essentially, right?
You're a standup comedian, I'll do an introduction, but your new standup special is now available on YouTube.
You've self -published this one, organised and paid for the filming, the production, the whole thing yourself.
It's you doing standup, doing your thing on stage, telling very funny stories, hilarious bits largely based on your experiences of living as an American in Paris, although you are now French, are you not?
I am French. You are.
I have been French since 2020.
Really, how is that going for you?
Great. Yeah? I don't know.
Did you did anything change when you got French citizenship, dual citizenship?
I might add it's your American and your United States citizen, and French citizen both?
Does has anything changed?
Well I'm not sure. that.
You don't unlock special skills?
I wish I could, but, um, I thought I would.
I thought the most special skill I was going to unlock was being able to bypass French administration because I thought they go easier on their own kind, but if you watch the special, you'll find out that was not the case.
Right. Yeah. There's a lot of admin, even for French, French, French people.
Yeah. So yeah, but you see, you're not able to choose baguettes more effectively.
I wish I could. Unfortunately, it's like French by paper, American by blood.
I'm trying. I'm trying my best to become more, I wore a beret today.
Unironically, I like a beret.
So maybe it's going to be a slow evolution.
Mason, I think that not as many French people wear beret.
Here's an interesting pronunciation for you listeners.
I'd say a beret and you say a beret?
Beret, so the emphasis is different.
Right. Right. Um, yeah, I don't think that like, so this is a sort of a cliche of the French, right?
That they wear berets.
But I don't see that many French people wearing berets.
I feel like they could wear them more.
They should wear them more.
It's a great hat. It really keeps your head warm.
A real beret is going to be made from wool.
From the Basque region, is where they come from.
Really? Yes. So I have a, I have a beret from the Basque country that's in the Southwest made from wool, and I only wear it when it's quite cold out because it makes me warm.
So I use it as a functional hat.
Yeah, and it's a, it's a good hat.
Definitely. So your show now in this conversation, I want to use some of the things you talk about in your show, which by the way, you can watch on YouTube listeners if you're interested, the link will be in the description.
It's called The Only American in Paris.
We'll get to that in a second.
I want to use some of the things you talk about in your show as the basis for some chit chat or conversation, which I think will probably touch on things like cultural differences, which we've already looked at a little bit.
Brinsfield Can I say something about the show?
Mason Yes, absolutely.
Brinsfield It's available with French subtitles and English subtitles.
If you're an English learner and you want some help, you can watch it with English subtitles.
If you're curious about the French language or you're just starting your journey in English and you are French, which might mean this would be hard for you to understand, but it's got French subtitles.
So, it's accessible to your whole audience because there's English with English subs.
Jason Vale... Yes. I think the English subtitles will be certainly most appealing for my listeners, and they are not just automatic subtitles.
Michelle KeOUGH... No. We made the subtitles, me and my production team, ourselves, and there's French in the specials.
So, when there's French it's actually translated into English in the sub, so you'll be able to understand everything.
Mason' Yeah. Very useful.
Switch on the subtitles.
The link for the show is in the description.
And I'm not trying to prompt you to do any of your stand -up material.
I'm not trying to get your stand -up material out of you here on the podcast. But we could just talk around some of the things.
Questions, the show is called The Only American in Paris.
It's your one -person show, let's say.
Why did you choose that name?
The only American in Paris.
Well, I chose that name.
It's a joke. Because when Americans come to Paris, we tend to think of ourselves as very special.
We're like chosen in some way.
Because first of all, technically it's very hard to, we don't have it, I don't have an EU passport.
Well, I didn't. So, you know, you've got to really be motivated to come.
You can't just show up.
And so you feel like you've done something.
And usually you're the only one of your family or friends to move to France.
And so you kind of feel like, I'm special, I've come here, I'm going to document it.
And we see this time and time again on TikTok.
Girls are like, I just moved to Paris.
And then you show up and you're like, wow, I'm not that unique.
And actually, Americans have been doing this for a long time.
Mason Yes. Americans do have a soft spot for France and Paris especially.
Really romanticize it so much. so much. I don't know.
I think it's so different than any city in the United States in terms of the look and the feel and the culture, and it really is seductive.
And so, you're on vacation and you're like, oh my God, this is so beautiful.
I want to live here.
The bread, the wine, whatever.
And then people just show up and they fully forget it's an actual real country and real city with a real language and culture that is not gonna bend to you in any way.
it's not Disneyland, it's not there to offer you a service, it's a fully functioning city that in many ways tourists sort of get in the way.
Although they are, to an extent, the lifeblood of many industries here.
They can be, people can find tourists a little bit annoying sometimes if they're in the way.
So tourists come here, they might find that real life can be a little bit of a slap in the face sort of thing.
I think so. But, so I was just playing this idea that Americans, we feel like we're so special, we've come to Paris, look at me, you know, like the Emily in Paris syndrome.
And then you realize you don't have any friends and you can't speak the language and your dreams of being like, I'm gonna be fluent in French, I'm gonna be a writer, I'm gonna make friends with all these French people and be so elegant and chic, and then you're like bonjour, and you like are freaking out about how to order your baguette so you just look around and you're like oh my god is anyone here speaking you you speak English I speak English we're friends now will be friends yeah and then you just go and sit in a cafe terrace with one coffee and just sort of yeah thank it's like thank God
you understand me and um you mentioned you mentioned emily in Paris yes because she is an American in Paris she's the most known American in Paris of this generation Mason that way because of the Netflix TV series about an American girl who goes to to work in Paris.
She gets a job. Yes, yeah.
Played by Lily Collins and it's a hugely successful Netflix show.
Yes. And she is an American in Paris.
Is this, was this a reference for you in the title of your show because she is maybe the American in Paris but you're the only American American.
The title of the show was actually not related to that.
It more related to that feeling of every American that shows up in Paris wants to make it their identity and make themselves seem unique in some way, and then write a show or a book.
Lots of memoirs, Americans in Paris.
They're like, I know.
I'm going to talk about being an American in Paris.
You go to a bookstore, there's 40 books about being an American in Paris.
Amber always says, if you're American, you should not be allowed to write a book your experience in Paris.
The world is full now.
We've got, there's a lot of them.
So I was like, I'm going to do a comedy show.
It's obviously very different.
Um, but, I don't know, what was the question?
I'm, I'm losing my...
It was about Emily in Paris.
Oh, Emily in Paris.
So it wasn't about that.
It was more about this, this vibe that Americans have, um, that we think were unique and special.
Um, um, we're not unique and special.
People are coming from everywhere every day and that's okay.
So let's have a laugh.
Absolutely. Flippen -Let's not be so serious about it.
Hartleby -Yeah, sure.
Can I ask you about Emily in Paris, though?
Flippen -Absolutely.
I've only watched the first season.
Hartleby -You've only watched the first season.
Can you describe it first?
Flippen -From what I recall, because it came out four years ago, I think.
It's a bit old. She's an American girl.
She comes to Paris.
She comes on an expat contract, so she's got job.
Corporate job. Yeah, she didn't roll up.
Some of us rolled up here as students or baristas, babysitters, and we're just trying to get by .So she's got a nice corporate job.
She wears Chanel. She lives on the left bank.
I'm like, this is a dream, she's never gone to the prefecture.
She doesn't have visa problems. I mean she doesn't have to go and face the French bureaucratic system at any point in any of the episodes.
Brinsfield - Apparently not.
She's living our dream.
Steele - She doesn't get cue jumps?
Brinsfield - Nothing.
She's living her best life.
She's got all these hot men fawning after her.
She meets her best friend at a flower market, because French people are known to be so friendly and willing to become your friend on the street.
Steele - Especially in the queue for a flower market.
Is it a realistic depiction of the life of an American girl in Paris?
I think it's definitely not a realistic depiction, but let's make a fantasy.
It's a television show.
When it first came out, I was all like, Oh, this, you know, I was all grumpy about it.
But now I'm just like, we need an Emily.
Let's just dream. Let's let Emily, you know, wear her 4 inch stilettos and Chanel bag and, you know, never take the Metro and just enjoy, you know, go to fashion shows and stuff like, yes, that's what we want to see.
We don't want to see a show about people going with prefecture.
I would like to see that.
I want to see a realistic Emily in Paris.
I don't think it's interesting.
It would be interesting for me.
I mean, for us potentially.
But I don't know, let's ask the listeners.
Do you guys want to see a show about the real Paris?
It's a lot of queuing.
Like one episode where she's in a queue at the, as you said, the prefecture, which is like the place where you go to get your working visa renewed. I'd love to see one episode which is filmed entirely in one cue.
Like a sort of, you know, the way that they did that at Seinfeld, there's one famous episode where they're queuing up for a restaurant and it's the entire episode in the queue.
I think, but that, but like kind of depressing, you know, that's what, as a British person, this is what I need slash expect from my drama shows.
I need a bit more darkness and depression.
You need darkness and depression.
And I think, you know, you talk about Americans loving the French. I mean, the Brits, you guys, have really complicated relationship.
You're like, we don't like you and you're like, I love you.
You love to hate them, you hate to love them.
Well, it goes both ways.
Because the British and the French, or the English and the French, maybe, more specifically, have spent a lot of our history trying to kill each other a lot.
But also getting together.
Yeah, this is right.
French kings and queens getting down.
Getting down. Making French -English royal babies.
This is true. there's a history of it.
Fighting and something else.
Brinsfield - Yeah, I didn't know if I could say that word on the podcast. I'm trying to keep it PG.
Mason - Another F word, you could say.
Brinsfield - Fighting and...
look it up! Mason - What would often happen, I guess, is that the royal families would wage war against each other.
And the actual soldiers would do all the fighting.
But then, it's the royals you'd probably get it on, in some way as a, as a, as a sort of a peace treaty.
As a, as a part of the contract.
Oh God. Can you imagine if that was going on today?
If like we had to have a peace treaty, you know, America, who's going to sleep with Donald Trump to get the peace treaty?
Or one of his kids for God's sake.
Let's not go there.
Sorry. I'm American.
It's been a rough start of the year.
Yeah. I was going to ask you that, but then I thought, um, how low the tone will be lowered.
It's just, it's, I, all I want to say, I studied politics in school.
I obviously grew up in America and I have kind of a vision of what America was and what I was taught of what we stood for and to watch the country go in a direction that is, seems very dangerously towards authoritarianism and fascism and our democracy breaking down.
It's very shocking and very hard to watch. And I everyday I'm like having moments I just like, I can't, I can't believe what's happening.
So it's hard to watch. Well, I won't press you on it any further.
I mean, you know, I'm not going to, you know, it's not your job to hold your entire country to account at this particular moment in time, but I agree.
It's pretty shocking to observe.
Let's get back to the comedy special.
Emily in Paris and your comedy show.
This is how I feel, I'll open the New York Times, I'll just be like, oh my god, and then like, have you guys watched my comedy special?
It's a weird time we are just in general in the world where we have all these crazy events happening in the world and we're on our phones and we see that and then someone's like, do So you want to lose five pounds, here's a new fitness tee." And you're just like, what?
Like the information.
It's just ridiculous, isn't it?
The experience these days.
Yeah. How long have you been in Paris now?
It's like a 12 -13? We're going on almost 13 years.
Okay. So has it changed you Sarah?
In that time, think of the person you were when you arrived and the person that you've become at this time.
Has it been a, have you transformed or are you essentially the same person?
Well, I mean, obviously I've transformed after 12 going on 13 years, you're going to transform.
You're going to get older.
I mean, I can say when I showed up, I didn't think I was going to stay here.
It felt very like I'm going to come, um, you know, I was with my now husband, he was my boyfriend and I was like, I'm going to move.
Yeah. French. I'm going to move.
I'm going to be with him.
We're going to enjoy this time and then we're going to try to go back to the U S and we're going to, we're going to go from there.
So the fact that my life came to Paris and at this point not leaving Paris is absolutely surprising.
I could not have predicted that, truly.
Because I didn't grow up thinking like, oh, I want to move to Paris.
It wasn't one of my dreams. I was very happy I lived in Washington, D .C.
I was very happy in my life there.
But, you know, life comes at you fast and things change, and now here I am.
And, I mean, I have to say the longer that I'm here, I'm definitely becoming more Parisian.
like I'm joking. Maybe I'm not French, but I'm definitely becoming more Parisian.
In what way? I just, I don't want to leave Paris.
Meaning the, the, the, the periphery, the, the entremure, I got to stay.
I'm like, we're never going to live in the suburbs.
I can't, I can't allow that to happen.
You've got the city limits of Paris.
Yeah. It's 20, a rond de smoke.
Yeah. Um, I was like, it's 20 or 21?
No, 20. It's 20, a rond de smoke.
And outside that's a Parisian thing.
Parisians are like, where's the party?
Oh, it's just on the other side of the Boulevard to Perifรฉrique?
That's a Parisian thing.
Even our friends, some of our friends don't live in Paris.
When they ask you to come out, you're like, whoa, hold on, let's take a look.
I need to just block three weeks in my timetable here.
You've got to get your passport out, you've got to make sure we have all of our shots to go out there.
So, in that sense, I'm very Parisian in the fact that I have lived Not only have I lived in Paris the entire time.
I've lived in the same neighborhood.
I just keep moving down the street.
I don't even leave, not even the Arrondissement, not even the neighborhood.
I'm just like, I'm just going down the street.
Yeah, same as us. Your experience is very similar to mine.
We actually arrived in Paris, I think, in the same month.
We did. We didn't know each other yet.
We didn't. September 2012.
12. Yeah. We both arrived at the same time, and very similar stories, really.
We were both with French people.
We came. We didn't necessarily expect to stay here long term we thought well there's you know this person.
I don't want to you know Lose this person so I'll follow them to France yeah, I want to make a life with them I want to like I'm in love with them and like that's what's important, and let's you know Paris is a great city Exactly what happened?
You'll get stuck here forever.
That's in a queue being que jumped by the locals I literally the other day I went to the boulangerie.
I don't usually go to this particular boulangerie on a Saturday morning.
And on a Saturday morning around this boulangerie is the market.
Okay. So it's got a heavy flow of people coming in to get bread.
They've gone to the market.
They want bread. It was a nightmare.
And I left I was just like, I was like, I can't!
And just the chaos and the, you know this woman, she like we arrived at the same time at the bakery and there was a man standing blocking the door.
And so I asked him, I was like, are you in line?
And he was like, oh no. And I was like, why are you standing there anyway?
So I was like, okay.
But I was being polite.
But this other woman who also writes the same, but she just like got in front of me and she was like, you know, I was, I was in front of you and I was like, okay, go ahead.
I'm not worried about it.
Then, you know, another just old person just filters in causing chaos.
Then then the woman who was so pressed to get in front of me was paying and like small money and she was on the phone so she just was like, yeah.
And then there's the Q splinters.
Or it sort of disperses at certain points.
I couldn't. It was, it was, and this bakery is very small, so it was just a mess.
Like no clean line.
Just a glom of people coming in the sand, you know, and it's very, it gives me terrible anxiety.
I get terrible cue anxiety.
I was I was angry. Get behind me.
Get behind me. You have to be exactly behind me.
Yes. So then I go home and I was like, God, I was like, French people.
I was like, you do not know how to cue.
And my husband was offended.
I was just like, you're wrong.
And I texted. I've got a group of English girlfriends from England.
Oh, what do you say?
Gold star cueers, English people, you know how to queue.
This is what you do.
Hill factoring that there should be a special government department for queuing and I think that I should be given the job of organizing it.
Although, I don't know how that would be enforced in France.
If you try to enforce a queuing policy or even some sort of compulsory training, like a week -long training course.
All French people have to attend it.
I think that they would go on strike.
Yeah. It's just never going to happen.
But I actually am here.
We need to get you into government to teach people how to queue because I was losing my mind.
I think Americans and English, when it comes to queuing, we have different personalities and approaches.
But I think the thing that holds true between our two countries is if you jump the queue in English or as we say in America, if you cut in the line, it's the greatest insult you could do to class and country.
How could you? It's so flagrant.
Yeah. Death row. Yes.
Immediately. In some states, the death penalty still exists.
Yes. Yes. Honestly, and in America, if you're going to cut in line, this is the democracy, people like excuse me we're like the line's back here yeah you know we whereas in England we'll we'll we will tuck very aggressively just you know we'll create a frosty atmosphere a frosty atmosphere and you'll you'll lock eyes with someone you're like we're not going to say anything but they've they've disturbed the force yeah it's just everyone around will know anyways so i i brought my husband was not agreeing he was like oh what do you mean i was like look at the evidence I was like, this is...
Go to my English girlfriend group chat.
They were just... Everyone's outraged.
Sorry, I'm passionate.
You know, I touched a nerve!
I touched a nerve with the queuing thing, obviously.
But you know French people on this particular one, have a look at yourselves.
But okay, let's flip it to something on the more positive side.
So we talked about challenges.
What about the positive aspects of what is great about living in Paris?
Oh my gosh, so many things.
I mean, Paris, it's a beautiful city.
You can really just go for a walk and have a beautiful moment.
There's so much history.
I love the museum. So many wonderful exhibitions.
Um, you go for a walk in the park.
Beautiful. I feel like I have a great family life here.
Me and my kids and my husband.
We just enjoy being in the city and my kids get to do so much cool stuff.
It's great. Yeah, absolutely.
And the system, I mean, like this, the education system, uh, so much is provided for.
Um, you know, uh, the national health system is amazing.
Yeah. People are cared for.
Um, you know, there's problems about everything, but you know, I think in America people are living really stressed about taking care of their families, getting food on the table, getting healthcare medicine if they need.
And when And you don't have that here, knowing it's like if someone falls ill, we have a way to get medication, get healthcare that we need.
It's great. It's no, you know, in America, we have like medical fundraisers.
It's very weird. Like gofundmes for treatments and it's just so anti -European.
It's just against so it's very strange anyways, but I want to keep it positive.
So yeah, but like I, I love France.
It is my adopted country.
I was so happy to become French. Um, it's, you know, culturally, there's so much cool stuff.
They love the arts.
I always feel like we're going to see a great play or, and being in Paris, the capital, we have access to everything.
Yes. Great food, fun things, great stuff for kids.
I feel like, I'm trying to think of all this stuff we've done, even just recently, like we went to an exhibition about pop art at the Louis Vuitton Foundation, which was incredible.
Took the girls. They loved it.
Yeah. Um, we went to, there's a museum, like a carnival museum, like, you know, like fairs with like carousels and kind of old games.
And they - Oh yeah, it's called the Musรฉe de Fรชte -Faurin, it's by Bursi.
It's a private collection.
Just this one guy collected all of these artifacts from different carnivals.
Really cool. They had it all decorated for Christmas.
We went with the family.
They had different, spectacular - they had a ventriloquist. Which was so cool.
What's a ventriloquist for my listeners ventriloquist is someone who has a puppet but and they voice the puppets voice But they try to make it look like they're not speaking.
Yeah, so it's it's a cool old kind of art form I try to learn I try to teach myself ventriloquism for a while I didn't get very far but I realize it only here at work You know, I could do this yours your voice like this, but that's like a shorter very northern voice Which is quite like that I started shocking like this So I thought, is this going to be like, is this going to be my acts?
Like this? This sort of character, you know?
And I thought, that's a bit weird, but when I was first doing comedy, I tried a few different things.
I tried to do to try to teach myself ventriloquism, spent quite a lot of time on my own speaking like this Yeah, cause you've got to try to not move the lips, right?
Yeah. It's hard. So that's why, with that accent, you're using your tongue a lot at the back of your throat.
You know, it ended up using the back of my tongue to do what my lips would be doing, you know, stuff like that.
I also tried to do a musical act.
I used to have an accordion.
I had a whole routine with an accordion.
We need this on the pod.
We need your ventriloquy, your own one man carnival.
The thing is though, doing ventriloquism on a podcast, on an audio podcast, there's not much appeal to that, is there?
Because you know, it's like, We're missing some of the magic.
Because the listeners, as far as they're concerned, it's like, well, we can't see his mouth moving anywhere.
They could watch it.
On the video version this is true.
Um, my youngest loved that because it was a dog.
So it was an older guy and a dog, we saw tap dancer.
Anyways, so just, you know, we're so lucky you are like, what can we do this weekend?
You can just look up.
There's great stuff.
I went to the ballet last month.
I, I've done great stuff.
There's always something amazing to watch. Absolutely, yeah, it's brilliant, isn't it?
Beautiful city and the food is quite good and the bread, lest we forget.
Wonderful. When you finally get it, yum, yum, yum.
After you fought tooth and nail to get to the front of the queue.
Maybe we're being over -dramatic.
Me? Never, I don't know.
It's not always that bad, but yeah, sometimes the queues are a bit annoying.
You did ask me though, have I become more perusion?
I think in some ways now when you see other Parisians doing bad behavior and you know when you lock eyes with another French person and you're kind of making that like, what do you mean by bad behavior?
I don't know if someone's just being oh I can't give a good example but I can think of times or you know you're on the bus and someone's causing a scandal or something and you just let someone's kind of being too noisy or doing something that's considered to be sort of generally?
Inappropriate or something?
In polite. Right, and then you lock eyes onto the Parisian and you're just like, that's when you know.
You're like we've ...
now we're on board together.
So that feels ... yeah I feel like I understand kind of the Parisian mindset now.
And I think one thing I like about it, is a lot of times, I think Americans were very intense and Parisians are a bit more relaxed.
But also if they feel an injustice has been made, they'll stand up for it.
And I like that. Yeah.
Oh, well, I always love watching Parisians arguing with each other.
It is a beautiful thing to watch, when it doesn't involve you.
Yeah, absolutely. I like to sit back and just observe.
If there's been an infraction of some kind, like in the street, like driving or something, and they get out of the car, so where we live our street has just one lane.
It's a one -way street with one lane.
So it's easy for the road to be blocked.
And quite regularly you'll just start to hear it shouting outside.
Come to the window.
Kaitlin Luna Yes, that's a Parisian move.
You hear people yelling outside.
Get to your window of the best reality TV.
Steve Quay Have a good look.
Kaitlin Luna Because you're not the only one.
Have you ever done that, and you've looked around and you can see other people looking out the window?
Steve Quay Yeah, absolutely.
Kaitlin Luna It's like, we're all seeing this.
Steve Quay You're joined by all your neighbors who are watching the show as well.
And it's always some guy, some delivery guy, who's stopped his truck in the middle of the road, and the road's backed up, and there's cars beeping and buses beeping, and then someone gets out of their another truck and comes over and they start insulting the other guy who stops what he's doing.
And they have an argument, right.
Instead of just letting the man finish his job, no, now they're on Gagee.
So that guy who came out of his car to come and insult the other guy is making the situation much worse and so now everyone's annoyed and and you have to do this theater.
I love it. Lovely to watch it.
It never actually escalates beyond verbal confrontation though.
Which is refreshing because in my country it could.
Again, I don't want to America, but it's nice.
It's, yeah, people really do, you know, they'll go for it and and have colorful language as we say.
Yeah, the French colorful language.
You know, there's, yeah, they can insult each other with a flurry of rude words and insults and you're just like wow this is impressive.
It is spectacular isn't it?
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But for now, just relax .awa Yes, absolutely.
How's your French? TretDiz Savah?
I'm good. I'm good.
I'm good. You know what your level is?
I'm good. Okay. So, five years ago, I had to get tested for nationality.
Yes. And I got C2 for listening.
So I was very pleased with that.
Wow. Yeah. I was really, really pleased.
I do think I have a good ear.
I understand a lot.
Obviously, not all.
Five years ago, my Eb.
aureole expression was at a B2.
I think it could be a C1, but maybe I make some mistakes.
People can understand me.
I feel confident. I don't go into any situation feeling like I can't express myself.
But of course, I get nervous sometimes.
I'm meeting with the school to do a, we're going to like the schools of Paris to do a little protests, because they want to close a class down in our school.
So a group of parents, we're going to go and turn to parents and talk to them and say, we don't agree with this, that I am a little nervous cause that's a more sophisticated way of speaking.
So that does intimidate me a little bit, but you know, I'm, I'll go and I'll roll with it.
So I'm feeling good.
I would love to be better though.
I mean, who wouldn't like to improve?
There's made. Have there been any particular experiences or things that you feel have helped to boost your French?
Could you just name one thing where you felt, wow, that made a difference?
Brinsfield - Well, I'll say something related to the special.
Steele - Yes. The comedy special.
Brinsfield - The comedy special.
So a comedy special, when we say comedy special, it's when any comedian puts out an hour work that's taped, filmed.
We call it the special.
Two things, one because I've been in Paris for a long time.
I really called on friends to help me and they did and it was wonderful.
And part of that, you know, I had a lot of, obviously I had a crew, a full production crew and we were many different nationalities but also a lot of French people and my director of photography was French and he had good English but we were communicating in French and it just was like, this is so great that I feel confident working with these people on my team and being able to communicate with them confidently and they understand me it that was a great moment to feel like yeah thankfully I've been here and I've learned the language and and we understand each other and I can communicate in French
and we're we're getting all the pieces together so great yeah really good really good feeling of accomplishment yeah but on the way to this the I mean what have you what how how did you manage to get there?
Have you done anything in particular that you feel really helped?
I think a couple of things.
First, when I did come here, I did go to French school for two years.
I think being in a classroom in a formal setting helps you get your basics, you learn grammar, you learn conjugation.
I mean, of course there are people who are out there and they're like, just watch movies and you'll be fluent.
And it's like, I don't Maybe, but if you really want to know a language, I think taking classes is a great way.
Working on the actual nuts and bolts of language is really important, and I actually should do some more of that.
Then getting jobs and working with French people, having bosses who are French or colleagues who are French. It's like, this is the only way we've got to communicate.
So putting yourself in situations where you have to use the language.
Yes. And I'm also just giving myself the grace of time, knowing that if you keep going, you are gonna get better as long as you keep trying and putting yourself out there.
And like I was just saying, I'm gonna go to this meeting, this governmental meeting next week.
And yeah, I'm a little nervous, but it will be one, I want to go, and two, it's like, okay, I'm pushing past any self -consciousness I have about my French or how to express myself, and all of these things are good.
So yeah, you just, you got to put yourself out of your comfort zone.
If you stay in your comfort zone, you're not probably going to learn a language.
You got to get a little uncomfortable.
Yeah. And keep going.
And keep going. Because when I came, trust me, I did not speak any French. I went to the Alliance Francaise in Washington DC.
I had my, you know, my kind of first vocab and I was feeling really good.
And I show up here and it's very overwhelming when you finally go to the country where you're learning the language and you're like, wow.
But how people speak on a day -to -day it's it's so fast there's so many accents and it felt really overwhelming.
And it's hard because as an adult language learner, you think you don't realize how long it's going to take.
Given the fact that, you know, you have a life and a job and you've got other you know, you're not a university student dedicated you know 24 seven to learning the language.
So yeah, just having some grace and be like, it's gonna take some time and trying to enjoy it in the process.
And it's really funny now that I have kids, because I was reading a book to one of my kids.
I don't usually read in French. I just do the English and my husband does the French. But we were looking at something, oh, my daughter, my eight -year -old had homework and she was reading the story out loud in French and then she said a word. I was like, what does that mean?
She's like, I don't know.
And I was like, okay.
So we're both just like, well, we'll figure it out later.
But I love learning new French vocabulary.
It's so fun. I get humbled by this language every single day.
And I just like, wow, you really can learn something new every single day.
And of course, I cannot think of a good example, but there has been something recently I was like, I just learned a new word that's very fun.
That's great. That's a really good attitude.
Yeah. Much better than my attitude to learning French. Listen, you gotta have some fun along the way.
Uh, and just, you know, people I think in general are quite enthusiastic.
They're more, if they see your trying, sure, there's some jerks, but if they see you're trying, people like that.
People are usually willing to meet you halfway.
Cause people are nice.
Yeah. This is true.
Yeah. Great, great.
That's the spirit. There's the spirit, um, I feel like we've we, cause we don't have that much time cause we both have children that we have to go and get.
So just to close that part of the episode of The Conversation, The Only American in Paris, available now on YouTube.
The link is in the description.
If you want to see Sarah's honed comedy skills on display, telling her jokes and stories, check the link in the description.
English subtitles are available.
A lot of the things that we've just talked about there get sort of demonstrated, but in the form of funny jokes and bits.
Standup comedy, yeah.
But the special is, it's all from my life.
It's all coming. It's either actual true stories that happened to me are coming from a place of truth.
But I think of, I talk about going to the pharmacy.
That's a true story.
I talk about running into a woman on the street when I'm with my daughter, that's a true story.
Getting my passport photo, that's a true story.
Getting a beauty service at Bollywood, that's a true story.
There's many, it's all coming from my life here.
So I hope you guys enjoy it.
Please check it out and get, or at the least use it to practice your English with the English subs.
Absolutely. And drop a like and a nice comment, you know.
That's always good on YouTube.
It helps with the, you know, the mysterious algorithm and all that stuff.
Oh yeah. Right. Now before we end, last time we did a lot of American and British English stuff.
If you remember. I love that.
Yes, I do. I want to do another one.
Right? We'll try and do it fairly quickly.
But I thought that Since that's probably going to be the, part of the appeal for people listening to this is that they can hear the two different accents.
And since I've got a real American person sitting next to me, I thought I would do a quick British or American English quiz again.
This one focuses on pronunciation.
We're going to do the pronunciation one.
Moser. Should I be looking at this, or should I try to avert my gaze?
Mason. It's up to you.
I'm considering a lot of people listening are just listening and they can't see what you're seeing, I'll be trying to make it clear for them to.
You don't need to look at the document I have here.
A quiz with a specific focus on pronunciation differences covering a range of words.
Choose the pronunciation closest to how you would naturally say each word. I'm going to spell a word. You can see it.
Listeners, you'll be able to see these things.
Go to the episode page or put these things there.
How would you say these words.
So the first one is.
Okay, here's what we'll do.
I'll briefly define the word and you have to try and guess it.
So don't look at the screen.
I won't look at this screen.
This is a thing that you would take during the winter time to improve your immune system.
Vitamin C, vitamin D.
It's a vitamin. Right.
Oh, I just gave me the answer.
I just said the word. A vitamin!
But I did see the. That's only one I've seen.
Okay. But we can say it.
It's a different pronunciation.
different pronunciation.
So you say? Vitamin.
I say, vitamin. That's interesting.
Yeah. Vitamin. Vitamin.
Yeah. Vitamin. I have a long i there, i, vitamin.
Vitamin and a d sound.
Oh, yeah. Not vitamin, but vitamin.
Vitamin. Yeah. And vitamin.
Sounds so British, when I say that.
It really does. Vitamin.
Okay. So next one is, where would you keep your car indoors?
The garage. Ah, because I would keep it in a garage.
Oh. There's a few different ways of saying garage.
Gar -ar -age. Some people say in England, but a garage.
And you say? Garage.
Interesting. Garage.
With the, uh, it sounds more French. Garage.
But they say parking.
They say... they say parking.
They say parking, yeah.
For some reason they use an English word wrong.
On parque un croix.
Yeah, exactly. Garage, but you'd say garage.
Stress on the second syllable.
Next thing is, if someone tries to organise a meeting with you, you would just need to check something to see if you have any availability.
Check your diary or maybe check your...
this begins Because of this oh my schedule right schedule whereas I would say do you know the shed Schedule says you'll shed you'll know I say schedule, but it's funny cuz we don't say diary.
That's also very English I wouldn't say I checked my diary No, what's a diary for you a diary is like a journal where you write down your secrets and you keep it all locked up Dear diary.
Yeah, dear dad. Hey, I was on Luke's English podcast Or, to quote Miss Brittney Jean Spears, dear diary, today I saw a boy.
Oh, that was good. Very nice voice.
Thank you. We call it a schedule, you call it a schedule.
Yeah, with that K. You're probably right that it's a schedule, because there are no other words that are spelled S -C -H that are pronounced Schuh, no, sorry, Schuh.
It's a school. Schuhl?
No, not Schuhl. Are we going to Schuhl, Papa?
Sounds very German, doesn't it?
So, schedule in Britain.
Schedule in American English.
A kind of metal, a sort of light yet strong metal used for making foil, which you could use to cover some food.
It's aluminum foil.
Right, we call it aluminium.
aluminium. aluminium.
Five syllables? aluminum four.
Where's the stress?
aluminum, loo. Yeah.
aluminum. Right for us is aluminium.
Right. I mean, I think you probably get a point there as well for efficiency.
You know, American English we'd like to be efficient.
I think we were cut to the chase.
Yeah, reduce the syllables.
Simplify the spelling.
The syllable got lost in the Atlantic somewhere.
We dropped it off. It got eaten by a shark.
Right. If you're cooking Italian food, maybe spaghetti bolognese, obviously, you've got your meat, you've got your onions, and tomato sauce, but you might sprinkle some...
Parmesan cheese. For?
Sure. Parmesan. I would actually say Parmesan.
That's another one.
But no. Parmesan? Little green dried green leaves.
Basil? Basel. You say basil.
Is that, am I getting the word?
Is there another. Well what is basil or basil.
Oh! It's a what? It's an herb.
Right. No it's not.
It's a herb. A herb.
A herb. Yeah. I just say herb.
We drop that H again.
PAUL - French? Surely.
That must be... CARRIE - herb.
PAUL - because in French, they don't say herb, they say herb.
CARRIE - Lherb. PAUL - So yeah, in America, you've kind of gone no, we'll pick up from the French here, French foods better, we trust the French when it comes to pronouncing this.
CARRIE - Yeah, again the age we just throw into the ocean.
PAUL - There's all sorts of letters bobbing about out there.
What's happened to them?
Pronunciation ocean.
Yes, the oh, and a prince pronunciation ocean.
That's quite a tongue twister.
So, uh, herbs in British English, herbs in American English.
Uh, you said this word earlier.
Um, it's a kind of classical dance, which, um, um, you know, like the, a Swan lake ballet ballet ballet.
Whereas I would say ballet.
Yeah. Yeah. It's a difference in the stress stress.
Yeah. We say ballet ballet ballet in British English and ballet in American English.
And it's funny because in French, they call it Danse Classique.
They don't even call it ballet, which sounds like a French word. They don't call it ballet at all.
So French, I wonder what ballet is in French. I don't know.
Right. But written like that, nothing.
But the way we're saying it, if broom is ballet.
B -A -L -A -I. So, like, to sweep is ballet and then ballet is the broom.
How confusing. But ballet has got a t at the end, which is not pronounced in either version, British or American English, which again makes us think that it's a French word. Mmm.
Moving Moving on to number seven, you have your work time and then the rest of your time is your what?
Leisure. Again, no, sorry.
Leisure time. Leisure.
Leisure in America.
I say America, I mean the United States of America.
Because there's always someone who says can you stop calling the United States of America America because I live in somewhere else in America and I'm not from the United States.
like on the continent, continent on the continent on the continent.
On the continent of North America or South America.
It's always nice to have you on the podcast. Give us a correct version of English for people to listen to.
As I was saying before, when you're learning a language, most people are nice, some are not making fun of my pronunciations, sir.
Listen, as I say I've said before, probably I'm from the American South.
I don't have a strong southern accent, but I came from North Carolina and this is how people speak and so I just have that, that count to 10.
We live in the continental United States, baby.
Might just mispronounce it.
Just, you know, just carry on.
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.
It's great when you do that.
That's that's North Carolina accent.
That's good fun. Leisure in British English leisure in American English, right?
Leisure like pleasure, leisure like seizure.
But we write leisure and seizure EI.
EI, they are both spelled EI.
Again, maybe another point to the Americans there, because there seems to be more consistency.
Leisure, seizure. So seizure, maybe you should just call it seizure.
Maybe that's how that word should be pronounced instead of seizure.
Number eight, you're watching television, You're watching some movie and it cuts and you get a break and they start showing you footage of a new car driving through the mountains.
Advertisements. Yeah.
Right. In British English it's an advertisement.
So โ but yeah. Oh, dear.
I'm almost conceding another point to American English here because the verb is to advertise.
Yeah, advertise. Advertise.
And so it would make sense for the noun to be advertisement.
but no advertisement in British English.
I think I'm going to come in and help the Brits, because in French, advertissement is like a warning.
Okay. So if someone says an advertissement, it's a warning.
And so you heard French people saying advertissement and you put your English spin on it.
Yes. And we're warning people about products.
Be careful, there's a new car on the market.
So you heard advertis - wait, what's, how do you say it?
advertisement. advertisement.
So, you heard the French say that, you're like, we like that one.
Write it down, sounds good.
advertisement. I'm going to give you that point.
Thanks a lot. It's obviously a loan word from French. A lot of our words in English come from French, so we stuck with the French pronunciation.
Whereas in America, you've streamlined it.
And made it consistent between the noun and verb forms. Number nine.
this is an animal that you might see uh in on the Serengeti plain uh hunted by lions, it's like a horse with black and white stripes, a zebra, right and we would say a zebra yeah zebra, zebra it's more fun to say zebra we have the strong e z zebra, yeah that does seem a bit more fun zebra zebra but there's no way I'm ever gonna say zebra so I know you're trying to try to It will convince me that it's more fun.
I think with your accent saying zebra sounds bad.
Zebra, no. I would be lynched in England if I came back to England and I was with my kids.
You said zebra. In the street and I said, no, no, come here.
Come here. Come on kids, come here.
No we're gonna cross at the zebra crossing.
Everyone would be like, oh.
Ooh. They'd be shocked.
They'd be tutting aggressively.
God. Ooh, that's bad.
Yeah, it's bad. But it's a fun animal, come on.
It's a fun animal. unless you get kicked in the head by one.
Which is not fun at all.
Just like a personal anecdote.
No, I've never told you about the time I got kicked in the head by a zebra.
All those times in the Serengeti I've had.
In my former life as a lion, when I lived among the lions.
Getting a kick in the head from a zebra as a lion, the zebra gets one kick in, but you're the lion, so you're like, that was cute.
I reckon if a zebra got a good kick on the head of a lion, I think you could take a lion out with a good zebra kick.
I feel like if they're that close getting a kick, the lion's got a claw.
There's something going in.
Let's keep going. Let's keep going.
We want to finish this really fun pronunciation quiz challenge.
I talked about using herbs in recipes.
You're making a spaghetti bolognese.
Sorry about pronunciation.
Italian people. There's a whole other nation.
We don't even say bolognese.
We just say spaghetti sauce.
We didn't even try America.
We're like, nah, we're just called sauce.
What's it made of? What's one of the principal ingredients of a spaghetti sauce or a bolognese?
We'd say ground beef.
Ground beef. Tomatoes.
Oh, there you go. Tomatoes.
Yeah, tomato. Oh, that is the most English word, tomato.
Just like we're going on a voyage to Italy with that ah, that long a, like tomato.
There's the O as well at the end, tomato.
Yeah, or to -mah -oh.
I like the tomato or the dah -ling.
You're right, that ah sound, which in, I mean, do you say words with that ah sound in American English?
Ah, ah, uh. Can't think of anything off the top of my head.
Oh no, I was thinking more like ah sounds.
So when we say things like, not a hot dog, In American English, hot dog.
Yeah, hot dog. Not a hot dog.
Not a hot dog. Yeah, not a hot dog, but tomato, the Ah sound often becomes a sound doesn't it?
To - tomato. We really go hard on the a tomato like there's name there.
Tomatoes. Okay. This is a classic one.
What's the best drink in the world?
I'm sitting across from Englishman so I feel like I have say beer or tea.
Okay, what's the principal, what's the principal ingredient in both those drinks?
Water. Sorry? Water.
Water. Yeah? Yes. That s the correct answer.
Okay. Yes. Water. Water.
Water. This is where we go with the D again.
Water. Yes. Durr. Water.
Or, again, some English people, water.
We've just lost the middle consonant.
Yeah. Glottal stop.
instead. Yeah. Water.
Amazing. Glass of water, bottle of water.
Oh yeah. The, the bottle of water.
This is a classic. This is a meme on the internet.
Americans lose their minds over the fact that that Brits just call it a bottle of bottle of water.
Yeah. Bottle of water.
A bottle of water. But again, we, in America, we do have some great regional accents and you know, when you get into regional accents and fun accents, some, you know, continents could just drop off.
We don't need to say the full part of the word. Mason H that can be had with the different versions.
Oh, another herb, not basil or basil.
Lapera again, we go hard with a, another herb that you would definitely put in a bolognese or a tomato sauce.
Oh, garlic. No. No, it's actually a herb.
Oh, sorry. I was getting excited.
No, it's not an herb.
It's - It's a vegetable.
Yeah. It's sort of, it's a, it's a, it's like a bulb.
It's like a, it's related to the onion.
Uh, so anyway. No, it's a, it's a herb that begins with an o. Several, uh - Oregano. Right.
Oregano, oregano. Yes.
Oregano?! What? Oregano!
This is like last time, this is the last time when we had the whole boy buoy thing.
Southwick. My head is blown.
Oregano? What in the Japanese -sounding herb are you talking about?!
Oregano?! That's too far.
Just stop! Campbell.
Yeah. There's even a state in the United States called...
Southwick. Oregon. Campbell.
Or, Oregon. It should be called Oregon.
That sounds like something from Star Wars.
Southwick. Oregon -o.
Campbell. What does the world think of that?
Listeners, what do you think, oregano or oregano?
Which one do you prefer?
Oragano. You do? No. I'm just, I'm shocked.
I'm with oregano. Still processing that.
Yeah. It's going to take me a while.
I'll have to get back on that.
Next word. I actually just said it by accident.
The next word. Oh. This is, this word describes the way something works.
Like the mmm of doing something.
It begins with a P, the mmm.
So, for example if we talk about themmm of uhm, oh god.
The process? Yes. The process.
You got it. Okay. Process.
Process, okay, now process.
Process, process. I feel like and we're gonna have to wrap this up in a minute.
I feel like as we go through this list it seems very sort of ad hoc or something like that.
Like obviously the listeners are gonna be thinking this is all great Luke.
In fact it's wonderful.
But uhm. How do I know?
How do I know? What's the rule?
There must be a rule.
there isn't really a rule.
I'm terribly sorry.
There will be long histories as to why these words get pronounced differently, why American English diverged from British English or the other way.
Because we both diverged from each other in terms of pronunciation and spelling over a long, long time.
There's a long history.
It's not just a simple rule that you can apply that explains everything.
One rule to rule them all, I'm afraid not.
And it's really, I know you enjoy the sign, Etymology is so interesting, where words come from, how words evolve, even like every year what words get put into the official dictionaries and how we change language and even, you know, American accents, if you listen to like old movies, like old films in like the thirties and forties and just how people talk and news anchors talk.
And it's just fun to see how it all evolves.
So it's ever changing.
Yes. The sort of cultural linguistic landscape is fascinating.
We've got a couple more.
On the computer, when you go to a website, you need to accept something.
The cookies? No, d -a -t -a, data.
Data. So that's just a T sound.
Data, data, data, or data.
Data. It sounds like I'm sorry.
That was terrible. Data.
I think it depends.
Data. There's no one in him.
You don't know anybody says data.
No. Really? Because I've heard that.
Really? Yeah. That's what I was thinking.
Data. No, I say data.
Again. Hard A we see the A.
Data. Steele - unexplained data.
Okay, another thing that you have to deal with on the internet is the fact that cookies are a problem.
There are potential invasions of your hm.
You don't want people taking your data and sharing it with anyone, because you need to protect your hm.
You would close the curtains of your window to give yourself more of this.
it's privacy, privacy, privacy, privacy, privacy, privacy.
We talk about privacy laws.
In British English privacy, privacy.
Again, Oregano, I just I'm shocked.
Privacy, which again, potentially makes more sense because it sounds like private, which is the adjective private and privacy, but for us it's private and privacy.
Do you say privatize or privatize?
Privatize. So it's privatize, pri -vit, but privacy.
Privatize are watchin' you.
You know the song? Hall of Notes.
Hall of Notes. Oh, okay.
Great song. Blue Eyed Soul.
Check it out. Private eyes.
80s music. music. Uh, interesting.
Ooh, British English.
British English is, I don't think you're winning the points when you look at your adjectives and the nouns and the verbs not adding up.
How do you, how do we, uh, what's the criteria for judging this though?
Um, I mean, uh, on who wins and who loses, it's not a competi - it's not a competition though, is it?
I mean, I'm American.
It's always a competition.
Yeah. Cause we win and you guys lose a lot, which is why you're like, we can all.
Yeah, we're all like, yeah.
Long history. be. So thateeee was great, short story.
I was just trying to have friendly banter, just teasing how English sports teams are rubbish.
Excuse me? What did she just say?
Sorry, where did you come in the Six Nations Rugby Tournament year, you don't compete, do you?
Because it's european based.
Cricket, I mean cricket.
Oh cricket. Who wants to be number one in cricket?
Excuse me. Second most popular spectator sport in the world.
And if you and normally, when I tell people that, they're like, oh, it's just because it's popular in India.
And it's like, so what, that doesn't count because it's popular in India.
I didn't say that. You didn't say it.
I actually was thinking, well, if anyone likes cricket, no matter where you're from.
Find a better sport?
Sorry? Find a better sport?
How dare you! I'm never going to be invited back!
I make you a cup of tea!
I know. That's almost it, promote your show, and you insult the game of cricket, you don't realize.
You don't realize what you've done.
I don't. I actually don't know cricket.
I'm sure... I actually really love all sports.
If you sit me down in front of a sport long enough, I'll get engaged.
I watch fencing at the Olympics and I was like, wow this is fascinating.
Cricket's better than fencing.
Well, I've never watched it, so I'm sure invite me over and teach me the ways.
I'm sure I would actually like it to be honest. I'm telling you cricket's brilliant.
I bet I would like it.
I'm sure you'd like it.
I like, honestly, my dad.
I grew up watching sports with my dad and he'd watch literally all sports.
So I'm just... It's a game where it's like the weather is one of the major players in the game.
Of course, in an English outdoor sport.
You're like, the weather, it's gonna be a big roll.
The weather is a huge factor in the strategy that you have to take.
Well because you're playing on grass?
Yes. So if it's wet, dry?
That's part of it. Okay, what else?
It's also the atmosphere.
So if it's humid, heavy atmosphere, the ball will swing, it'll move in the air differently.
That's a large part of the game.
When you bowl the ball, the ball swings in the air.
You shine one side of the ball, let it get rough, and as you bowl it, you bowl it in a certain way.
What does it mean to bowl?
That means pitching it.
Like in baseball, it's pit pitching.
So you're throwing it in the air?
Throwing it, but it bounces before it reaches the batsman.
So it has to hit the ground.
It hits the ground.
Oh! There's another thing, another factor.
So in baseball, the ball doesn't bounce.
But it moves through the air, it can swing and all that stuff.
uh, in cricket the ball swings as well.
Uh, and there's, I think it's a longer distance.
The ball travels further, which means the air, you know, that the swinging is more of a factor.
But then it, yeah, it bounces on the ground and the condition of the wicket as they call it.
Is that the pitch? The wicket.
The ground where the ball will bounce is known as the wicket.
Yeah. So the, the condition of the wicket, which is affected by the weather.
Listen, I grew up playing golf, and this sounds like golf, cricket.
They're like, we're going to hit a ball in the air on different grass, with humidity, maybe rain, and let's just see how it goes.
Golf goes into the hole and cricket wears the ultimate.
Get it beyond the boundary.
Get it way out into the car park, hopefully.
Smash someone's window with the cricket ball.
And what do you call that when someone hits it passed the car park?
It goes out without touching the ground.
That's a six. You get six runs.
If it bounces, hits the ground before it goes out of the boundary, there's four runs.
And you've got places where people have to?
Fielders are just wherever the team chooses.
But is there a base or something, like they have in baseball?
So in baseball, you've got this diamond with four bases.
But in cricket, it's just two sets of stumps at either end.
So instead of running around the diamond, you run between the things.
Anyway, we getting really distracted by it.
I know. But this is great.
I told you, I was just, I was just, listen, where it all came from, I have a lot of English friends, you included, and when it comes to football, English national team, it's, it's hard for you guys.
So I was just having a nice little go.
But look, I've learned something and now I'm like, you know what, I love cricket.
It felt necessary to pause and get me into it.
All I could be saying, one of the best things about cricket, and I'll stop here, is the fact that test matches, these are big international matches, will last for five days.
K thoroughbait I've heard about this.
It can go for a really long time.
Do they pause at any point?
Neil Gaiman Oh yeah.
They stop for lunch and tea.
So you stop for tea in the afternoon.
K thoroughbait But then it can go all night?
Neil Gaiman No. It stops at about six.
When the light fails.
That's another factor, the quality of the light.
K thoroughbait So there's no additional lighting on the wicket?
In some versions of cricket there are, but in Test Match cricket not normally no. They're daylight hours.
I feel like, and I don't know who came first, but I feel like if baseball and golf had a baby, this is what I see as cricket.
There's elements. Yes.
Yes. Kind of. Yeah.
Okay. That's another episode.
I would actually like to come back and talk about sports because I think it's really fun.
Okay. Give me the last one and then we got to go.
Just one more. That is, when you're driving you need to choose the way in which you're going to go from your home to your destination.
The route? Route, yeah, okay, route.
Oh. Well sometimes people say route, but it's route 66, like the famous American highway.
I always say route.
Yep. What's his name?
Chuck Berry sang Route 66.
He didn't sing Route 66.
But some people do say route.
I don't know when it becomes a route and when it's a route And I there's a very there's old show called whose line is it anyway?
Which is improvised and Wayne Brady made an improvised song called root rout And I remember watching this episode because he was like, I don't know when I say root I don't know when I say route he's like the root route.
Okay, it is funny. Yeah, my brain So Wayne Brady's going root route think in the u .s. It's one of those words It could be the route or routes but in the UK, it's always route.
Yeah route I would say, root.
Speaking of, I've got to get going.
Mason. We've both got to get going.
We've got to hit the road to pick up the kids.
Sarah, thank you very much for coming back on the podcast. Darby -365 Thank you.
I really enjoyed it.
As always. Mason. Yeah, definitely.
All right, everyone, nice one.
That was my conversation with Sarah Donnelly back on the podcast again for the, I don't ninth time, I'm going to speculate.
I'm speculating it's the ninth time.
I'm not sure exactly how many times it's been.
But she's been on the show a few times before.
If you want to find her other appearances, if you are subscribed to Luke's English podcast in a good podcast app, like the one I always mention, the one I use, and that's Pocket Casts, who don't sponsor this podcast, by the way.
But if you subscribe to Luke's English podcast on PocketCasts.
If you just open up your subscription on PocketCasts, you will find a search function.
And you could just search for the name Donnelly, and it will show you all the episodes with Sarah.
And you could add them to your list so you can listen to them.
Or if you go to my website and look at the episode archive, that's teacherluke .co .uk slash episodes, And then you do a Command -F search, if you're on a Mac, or Control -F search, if you're on a Windows computer.
And then search for the word Donelio, D -O -N -N -E -L -L -Y.
Search for that, and that'll reveal all the moments when Sarah was on the podcast. She's a good friend of Amber's, who, of course, you probably know, because Amber's been on the show lots of times.
Amber and Sarah are really good friends.
In fact, they were on a couple of episodes together, I think.
Anyway, you could check out your episode list in a podcast app with a search function like Pocketcasts, or you could do a Ctrl -F or Cmd -F search on my episode archive to find other episodes with Sarah, including the most recent one, which was 783, which all focused on differences between British and American English.
Yeah, don't forget, you can watch Sarah's show, The Only American in Paris.
The link is in the description.
It might be fun to watch Sarah doing her stand -up comedy on stage, talking about some of the things we talked about in this episode.
I really enjoyed that conversation with Sarah.
She will be back on the podcast at some point.
We covered some interesting things, cross -cultural stuff, And Then the stuff about American and British English and cricket of course, if you're a fan of cricket, let me know in the comments section I did an episode all about cricket a few years ago with my dad It's called I think it's explaining cricket or explaining the rules of cricket is that what it was called or all about cricket or Something like that explaining the rules of cricket Episode 473, which was done a few years ago, we talked about the rules of cricket, trying to explain it as best we could, and also bits of vocabulary, you know,
idioms and things that come from cricket.
Like, to be on a sticky wicket, to have a good, to have a good innings.
It's just not cricket, which means it's just not fair.
It hit me for six, I was bowled over by it.
I'm completely stumped by that question.
You caught me out. Phrases like that which actually come from Cricket, we go through all that stuff as well.
So that's episode number 473 deep in the episode archive.
You can listen to that one if you want more chat about Cricket on Luke's English Podcast. And you get the bonus of it being with my dad, so you can enjoy the voice of Rick Thompson in the episode as well.
That's the end of the episode.
I'll speak to you again next time.
All right, you can always leave your comments about anything that came up in the episode.
I'm always happy to read what you have to say.
And have a great morning, afternoon, evening, or night.
I hope this episode has helped you with your English.
Remember you can go to the episode page for this episode on my website where you'll find notes about the vocabulary that we talked about.
You also see some of the questions that I plan to ask Sarah.
But there's all that stuff about like vitamin versus vitamin.
Garage compared to garage.
Schedule in the UK versus schedule.
Aluminium in the UK.
Aluminum in America.
Herbs in the UK. Herbs in America.
ballet and ballet, leisure and leisure, advertisement and advertisement, zebra, zebra, tomato, water and water, oregano, which is the one that surprised Sarah so much, and oregano. Go back to episode 783 for a similar one of those where I was knocked out by Sarah's pronunciation of the word boy, which is a kind of inflatable thing that goes in the water in a lake or in the sea.
That's a boy, B -O -U -Y.
She pronounced it buoy, which, you know, I nearly fell off my chair.
Process or process, data or data or data, privacy versus privacy.
And then other things.
There were other things.
Mobile and mobile. In America, you hear people saying mobile phone, whereas in the UK, it's mobile phone.
Clerk. Like someone who works in a bank, a bank clerk.
In America, a clerk.
We had root and route.
We also got lieutenant.
that's in British English, that's someone in the army, a rank in the army, a lieutenant, and in America a lieutenant and niche.
That's a niche subject for a niche market, for a niche product.
In America it could be pronounced niche.
I think some Americans say niche, but also you might hear niche, so anyway you'll find all that vocab listed on the episode page for this episode on my website.
But anyway, I was saying have a lovely morning, afternoon, evening, or night.
I will speak to you next time.
But for now it's time to say goodbye.
Bye, bye, bye, bye, bye, bye.
Thanks for listening to Luke's English Podcast. For more information, visit teacherluke .co .uk.
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