Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn.
I'm Beth.
And I'm Neil.
Go to our website to find a script for this episode to read along with the podcast bbclearningenglishcom.
Hi Neil, how are you doing?
I'm very well.
Beth, how are you?
I'm good, thank you.
I've been watching Race Across the World.
Ah, TV.
Do you like watching TV?
It depends.
If I really like a show, then yes.
Today we're talking all about television.
We'll talk about some of the shows we watch and why we like them.
So, Neil, do you watch a lot of television?
No, actually, I don't.
I think probably I spend more time thinking about what to watch on television than watching, because there's so much choice.
But I do like to watch things like live sport on TV.
OK, that's good.
How about you, Beth?
I watch some programmes if I really like them.
But a lot of the time, if there's a show I really like…
I binge watch it.
That means I watch several episodes of a TV series in a row, because then I get to enjoy it all at the same time rather than having to wait for the next episode, because there is some really addictive TV out there.
Yeah.
Do you enjoy watching reality TV?
That's programmes about real people rather than actors.
I like some reality TV.
So, for example, we have a show in the UK called The Great British Bake Off where real people compete with making cakes and biscuits and that kind of thing.
And I like that show.
But I'm not really a big fan of other reality shows like dating shows and Big Brother, that sort of thing.
Have you ever been obsessed with a TV show? where you just cannot stop watching or talking about it?
Not recently.
When I was younger I really liked some big American TV shows and I was addicted to them because they had really big cliffhangers.
That means at the end of the episode.
There was a big shock and I couldn't wait to watch the next one.
A few years ago, there were lots of dramas from Scandinavian countries, like...
Sweden and Denmark and I was obsessed with some of those.
I watched them and I talked about them all the time.
Were they crime dramas or thrillers?
Some were crime, some were legal and political, all kinds.
I loved them.
OK, that sounds quite good.
Is there a programme that you have really enjoyed recently on TV?
Yeah, I've seen some really interesting documentaries about very serious topics like war, for example.
That have been very interesting.
Yeah, i have seen documentaries like that too recently.
There are quite a lot around at the moment and i think it's also interesting to learn about what's happening in the world, because tv is there to enjoy but also if you manage to learn something at the same time, then i think is a bonus.
So, Beth, you like a programme about baking.
What do you like about it?
Well, I think it's interesting to see people cooking, because in normal life you don't see people making cakes.
You just make them at home.
And sometimes they do really well.
They make incredible cakes and pies and I think, wow, how do they do that?
And then sometimes it's funny because sometimes They do really badly.
So I think it's just a good, enjoyable programme to relax.
What about you, Neil, with these Scandinavian dramas?
Why did you like them?
I think the stories were very interesting.
And I really liked listening to the language.
And because I watched so many of these programmes with subtitles...
After a while, I thought that I could speak Swedish.
And can you speak Swedish?
No.
Let's recap the vocabulary we learned during the conversation.
We had binge watch – watch lots of episodes of a TV series in a row.
Reality TV – programmes about real people rather than actors.
And obsessed – unable to stop thinking about something.
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.
If you enjoyed this programme, try our Learning English Conversations podcast, where we teach you a new English expression every week.
Next week, we'll talk about family traditions and celebrations.
See you then.
Bye.
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