Hi everyone and welcome to the Understandable English Podcast.
In this podcast, I will talk slower than my usual rate of speech, temp of speech.
I will talk slower so that you can understand as many words as possible.
It is also important so that you understand how to properly pronounce words.
Listening to this podcast can allow you to self-correct pronunciation, practice your listening skills and even learn more about British and UK culture.
I will only use simple words, words which are not too complicated.
And if I use more difficult words, I will explain them using more simple words.
I hope that will work.
For example, I will talk very, very quickly for a short amount of time, just to show you how difficult it can be to understand a native speaking at a high speed, which is why I want to help train your ears, allow you to understand speech at a slower speed, so it becomes easier to understand faster speed content.
Okay, so now I will talk very quickly for a short amount of time.
So guys, welcome to the podcast.
I'm really glad that you have tuned in.
I hope that you really enjoy what I'm gonna do today.
I'm gonna talk a little bit about myself, why I'm doing the podcast, and why you're here.
We're gonna talk about different goals.
Oh, it's gonna be so good.
So that was probably... quite difficult.
A lot of my words mixed together.
They joined together and it's hard to make them out.
It's hard to understand them.
I really understand how difficult it is to understand a foreign language.
I've had the same problem with Russian.
Listening to TV or films or even just YouTube videos can sometimes be very difficult because people don't properly say the words separately.
They mix or blend together.
They join together. and it becomes very hard to understand.
Throughout these podcasts I will increase the speed of my speech over time.
So, for example, on episode 10 I will speak a little bit faster than I do now on episode 1.
And over time, I will also make the vocabulary, the words, more difficult, slightly more difficult.
We will also talk about various interesting topics from politics to culture to literature.
I may even read some short stories and discuss them.
I would recommend to listen to this podcast when you're on the way to work or school, or even just doing something else.
It just helps to be hearing the English language from a native every single week.
So at this point i should probably introduce myself who i am, and i guess i have already explained what the podcast is for.
So i am oliver, and you probably know me from my instagram account, english with oliver.
There I make short videos explaining different ways to say things in English, some English grammar and various different English topics.
My account has grown quite quickly and there are so many wonderful followers there.
You're all amazing and people leave the kindest comments and I really, really appreciate it.
So today I'm going to talk a little bit about who I am, why I teach English and why I speak a little bit of Russian as well.
So from the very beginning, I was born in a country called Northern Ireland.
This is a region in the United Kingdom.
A lot of people forget that Northern Ireland is a part of the United Kingdom, but it is.
I was actually born a British and Irish citizen so I have both passports.
I grew up in a small village outside of Belfast.
Belfast is the capital city of Northern Ireland.
I had a really good childhood.
I enjoyed where I lived while I was growing up but I always wanted to move to the city.
I wanted to get away from the quiet fields quiet, peaceful village, and go somewhere where there was more happening, where there was more to do, more activities, more people.
So when I was 17, I was picking where to go for university and what I wanted to study.
I knew I wanted to study politics. and I saw an option to study politics and Russian studies.
Russian studies is the study of Russian culture, Russian language, and Russian history.
This seemed very interesting to me.
I have always been quite interested in Russia.
It always seemed like a mysterious place, a mysterious land very far away that no one really knew very much about here in the uk.
Of course there is always stereotypes about a country but to be honest I never really knew any stereotypes about Russia.
I thought it was interesting and something different, so I just went for it.
I picked it.
I selected it.
I moved to the University of Edinburgh.
That's quite a difficult word to say.
Edinburgh.
Edinburgh.
It's a strange pronunciation.
Edinburgh is the capital of Scotland.
It is a beautiful historical city.
It has really old buildings, many museums and it really looks like you're in the medieval ages.
There I began to do a small course on Russian language at university.
To be really honest with you, I didn't learn a lot during the first year.
I could barely talk about myself and who my family were in Russian.
I also didn't understand anything.
If someone was to speak it to me in Russian, even basic stuff, I would look back at them as if they were an alien, as if they were not making any sense.
I just couldn't understand.
It was during my third year of university. that I went to St.
Petersburg to live for seven months.
This was when I learned most of my Russian, when I was able to begin to understand people, to begin to make proper sentences and express myself better.
It was very helpful because my girlfriend's family were there and she is Russian and her family also do not speak any English.
She speaks perfect English, thankfully, but her family don't speak any English.
This meant I had to practice every time I saw them, and I really think it helps me to begin speaking in Russian.
I'll talk a lot more about my time in St.
Petersburg on some other topics.
But for today I just wanted to introduce a little bit about why I study Russian, about who I am, where I come from and what this podcast is and who it's for.
It's really for anyone studying english, at whatever level you are.
It doesn't matter.
Even if you only understand 40 or half of what i say.
That is okay.
With time you will understand more.
You can even re-listen to the same podcast and you will understand more each time you listen to it.
Your ears will get used to, they will begin to recognise my voice and the words I say.
That's everything for this week.
I would really love it if you guys could leave a good review on iTunes or Spotify or wherever you're listening to this.
And make sure to follow the podcast as well.
I will be releasing a new episode every single week.
Thank you very, very much for watching.
Well, listening, not watching.
And I will see you guys in the next week's podcast.
Thank you very much.
Have a lovely day.
