Latest / Luke's English Podcast / 872. The Birthday Party (Learn English with a Short Story)(M4A_128K)

Transcript

872. The Birthday Party (Learn English with a Short Story)(M4A_128K) · Luke's English Podcast

0:00
Speaker 1: Hello, Welcome back to Luke's English Podcast. In this episode,
0:03
Speaker 1: I'm going to tell you a story and then use
0:05
Speaker 1: it to help you learn English, okay, and I'm going
0:08
Speaker 1: to do this in three sections. First, I'll just tell
0:11
Speaker 1: the story to you and you can use that as
0:13
Speaker 1: a sort of little listening exercise or listening test see
0:17
Speaker 1: if you understand everything in the story, and especially things
0:21
Speaker 1: like how the characters feel and exactly what happened. It's
0:25
Speaker 1: a fairly short story, this one. I mean, it's a
0:27
Speaker 1: very short story. Really, it's three hundred words about three
0:29
Speaker 1: hundred words long. So it'll just take a couple of
0:32
Speaker 1: minutes for me to read the story to you, and
0:34
Speaker 1: then after that I will just explain what happened in
0:37
Speaker 1: the story in my own words. And then I'll go
0:40
Speaker 1: through the story again line by line, and I'll explain
0:44
Speaker 1: vocabulary for you so you can learn various little phrases, words,
0:50
Speaker 1: and other descriptive language from this story. Okay. So the
0:55
Speaker 1: story that we're looking at here is called The Birthday Party,
0:58
Speaker 1: and it was written by Catherine Brush, who was an
1:01
Speaker 1: American newspaper columnist, a short story writer, and novelist. This
1:08
Speaker 1: particular story was published in nineteen forty six, But like
1:13
Speaker 1: all good writing, it still remains fresh today. It feels
1:18
Speaker 1: like it could have been written yesterday. Really, so although
1:22
Speaker 1: it was written a few decades ago, it still feels
1:24
Speaker 1: really sort of fresh and new. So I'm going to
1:26
Speaker 1: start in just a second. But first of all, just
1:29
Speaker 1: one question for you to consider before you listen to this. Okay,
1:33
Speaker 1: my question is about people watching. Do you know what
1:36
Speaker 1: people watching is? This is when you're in a public place,
1:40
Speaker 1: for example, in a restaurant, and you kind of watched
1:43
Speaker 1: the other people around you and sort of, I don't know,
1:47
Speaker 1: imagine what their lives are like, observing other people. I mean,
1:51
Speaker 1: it's a bit nosy right to do this, to look
1:54
Speaker 1: at other people and sort of spy on them, but
1:57
Speaker 1: I think we all do this. So do you ever
1:59
Speaker 1: people watch? Okay, when you're in a public place like
2:04
Speaker 1: a restaurant or in a queue for something, so observing people,
2:08
Speaker 1: watching their behavior, watching their interactions with each other, and
2:11
Speaker 1: then imagining what kinds of people they are, what their
2:15
Speaker 1: lives are like, what their relationships are like. It might
2:18
Speaker 1: also include eavesdropping, which means actually listening to other people's conversations,
2:23
Speaker 1: but not necessarily so people watching, just watching people watching,
2:27
Speaker 1: strangers that you might see in public places. Do you
2:30
Speaker 1: ever do this? If you're out in public, do you
2:33
Speaker 1: ever discreetly watch the other people around you and try
2:37
Speaker 1: to imagine what their lives are like? For example, if
2:40
Speaker 1: you're in a restaurant, do you subtly while you're eating
2:43
Speaker 1: your food, do you, subtly, without being noticed, have a
2:46
Speaker 1: look at the other people on the other tables, try
2:49
Speaker 1: to imagine who they are, what's going on in their lives.
2:53
Speaker 1: And have you ever observed something amusing or something that
2:58
Speaker 1: made you feel a little uncomfortable or embarrassed, Like maybe
3:02
Speaker 1: you got an insight into someone's personal relationship or family
3:07
Speaker 1: life and it actually made you feel an even a
3:09
Speaker 1: little bit uncomfortable or embarrassed or awkward or even sad.
3:13
Speaker 1: So do you ever people watch? And have you ever
3:15
Speaker 1: noticed anything sort of interesting when doing that? That's just
3:20
Speaker 1: something to think about before we start the story. And
3:24
Speaker 1: in fact, let's now start the story. All you need
3:26
Speaker 1: to do here is just listen. First, just listen and
3:30
Speaker 1: try and follow the main events. How do the characters feel? Okay,
3:34
Speaker 1: I'll explain in my own words in a moment, And
3:36
Speaker 1: then we'll go through all the vocabulary and stuff and
3:38
Speaker 1: see what we can learn. Okay, so here we go.
3:43
Speaker 1: This is the birthday party by Catherine Brush. They were
3:49
Speaker 1: a couple in their late thirties, and they looked unmistakably married.
3:55
Speaker 1: They sat on the bonquette opposite us in a little
3:58
Speaker 1: narrow restaurant dinner. The man had a round, self satisfied
4:04
Speaker 1: face with glasses on it. The woman was fadingly pretty
4:09
Speaker 1: in a big hat. There was nothing conspicuous about them,
4:15
Speaker 1: nothing particularly noticeable, until the end of their meal, when
4:21
Speaker 1: it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion. In fact,
4:28
Speaker 1: it was the husband's birthday, and the wife had planned
4:32
Speaker 1: a little surprise for him. It arrived in the form
4:37
Speaker 1: of a small but glossy birthday cake with one pink
4:41
Speaker 1: candle burning in the center. The head waiter brought it
4:47
Speaker 1: in and placed it before the husband, and meanwhile the
4:51
Speaker 1: violin and piano orchestra played Happy Birthday to you, and
4:57
Speaker 1: the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise,
5:02
Speaker 1: and such few people as there were in the restaurant
5:05
Speaker 1: tried to help out with a pattering of applause. It
5:10
Speaker 1: became clear at once that help was needed, because the
5:15
Speaker 1: husband was not pleased. Instead, he was hotly embarrassed and
5:21
Speaker 1: indignant at his wife for embarrassing him. You looked at him,
5:28
Speaker 1: and you saw this, and you thought, oh, now, don't
5:31
Speaker 1: be like that. But he was like that. And as
5:37
Speaker 1: soon as the little cake had been deposited on the
5:40
Speaker 1: table and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece, and
5:44
Speaker 1: the general attention had shifted from the man and the woman,
5:50
Speaker 1: I saw him say something to her under his breath,
5:54
Speaker 1: some punishing thing, quick and curt and unkind. I couldn't
6:03
Speaker 1: bear to look at the woman then, so I stared
6:06
Speaker 1: at my plate and waited for quite a long time,
6:13
Speaker 1: not long enough, though. She was still crying when I
6:17
Speaker 1: finally glanced over there again, crying quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly,
6:26
Speaker 1: all to herself under the gay, big brim of her
6:30
Speaker 1: best hat. So that's the story. I think that's very
6:38
Speaker 1: good writing. I think that's really really well written, little story,
6:42
Speaker 1: A perfect little portrait of these two people and a
6:47
Speaker 1: little interaction which seems to tell you so much about
6:51
Speaker 1: what's going on between them. And it's sad that it's
6:54
Speaker 1: definitely sad. It's almost heartbreaking. Really really good writing, though,
7:00
Speaker 1: But what happened? Okay, So the story begins. It's in
7:05
Speaker 1: a restaurant, Okay. The writer says that she saw this couple.
7:13
Speaker 1: They were probably in their late thirties, and they were
7:17
Speaker 1: definitely married, she could tell just by looking at them.
7:20
Speaker 1: And they were sitting on the They were sitting just
7:23
Speaker 1: on the other side of the restaurant, just opposite them,
7:25
Speaker 1: at a table, having dinner. She described the two of them.
7:28
Speaker 1: She said that the man had a round face, glasses,
7:33
Speaker 1: and he had a sort of self satisfied look on
7:35
Speaker 1: his face. The woman was fadingly pretty, like she kind
7:40
Speaker 1: of used to be pretty, or she's sort of her
7:43
Speaker 1: beauty is fading or maybe getting less, you know, as
7:49
Speaker 1: she gets older maybe, And they just looked like an
7:55
Speaker 1: ordinary couple. Really, they weren't bringing too much attention to
7:57
Speaker 1: them to themselves except for the fact that the woman
8:00
Speaker 1: was wearing a nice big hat with a wide brim.
8:04
Speaker 1: And the narrator of the story realizes that this is
8:09
Speaker 1: not just an ordinary dinner, but in fact it's a
8:11
Speaker 1: special occasion. In fact, it's the husband's birthday and the
8:15
Speaker 1: wife has planned a special little surprise for him, and
8:19
Speaker 1: she seems to be kind of a bit shy about it,
8:22
Speaker 1: and quite proud of the fact that she's organized this
8:25
Speaker 1: little special thing for his birthday. And what is the
8:29
Speaker 1: special thing. It's a little birthday cake, a cute little
8:32
Speaker 1: birthday cake, a red, glossy cake with a single pink
8:36
Speaker 1: candle in the middle of it. And she's obviously asked
8:39
Speaker 1: the head waiter of the restaurant to bring the cake over,
8:44
Speaker 1: and the orchestra just like a couple of instruments playing
8:48
Speaker 1: in the corner of the restaurant. They start playing Happy Birthday.
8:51
Speaker 1: The staff come over and they're probably singing Happy Birthday,
8:54
Speaker 1: and the cake is brought down. The wife seems very
8:57
Speaker 1: sort of proud of this moment, and the people in
9:03
Speaker 1: the restaurants all give a little clap, they all applaud
9:08
Speaker 1: and it seems like a very sweet moment. But what
9:12
Speaker 1: the narrator notices is that when all the people have
9:15
Speaker 1: gone away and when no one's looking at them, she
9:19
Speaker 1: notices that the husband is not happy with this at all. Now,
9:23
Speaker 1: why why would you not be happy with that situation?
9:27
Speaker 1: It's not really clear. I don't know either, really, because
9:30
Speaker 1: I'd be delighted if you know, my wife had organized
9:33
Speaker 1: a sweet little thing like that in a nice little restaurant,
9:37
Speaker 1: but this man is not happy about it. In fact,
9:40
Speaker 1: he's very embarrassed, which seems to tell you something about him,
9:44
Speaker 1: like he's probably got quite a high opinion of himself.
9:48
Speaker 1: He probably takes himself very seriously. And the idea that
9:51
Speaker 1: like a little cake and people in the restaurant singing
9:53
Speaker 1: happy birthday to him and everyone looking at him is
9:56
Speaker 1: actually very something that he's ashamed of and something that
10:00
Speaker 1: made him feel very embarrassed, and he's unhappy, and in fact,
10:04
Speaker 1: he's angry about it, and he tried, you know that
10:07
Speaker 1: they're trying not to show this to everyone in the restaurant,
10:10
Speaker 1: but he's really unhappy with her. And when no one's
10:13
Speaker 1: looking except for the narrator of the story, who notices this,
10:18
Speaker 1: the husband says something to his wife, and it's really
10:22
Speaker 1: something very nasty. He says it quietly so other people
10:26
Speaker 1: can't hear it, but he says a nasty comment to her,
10:30
Speaker 1: which is really sad, and she's obviously very very upset,
10:36
Speaker 1: and she's she's heartbroken. The writer of the story can't
10:41
Speaker 1: really bear to watch, so she looks at her plate
10:44
Speaker 1: and stuff for quite a long time. But when she
10:47
Speaker 1: does have a little look again, she sees that the
10:50
Speaker 1: woman is still crying, and you know, under the under
10:55
Speaker 1: the brim of her lovely, happy, big hat, she's still crying.
11:00
Speaker 1: So it's a really sad little story, and a story
11:05
Speaker 1: about observing a relationship, observing a marriage which perhaps is
11:12
Speaker 1: not that happy, not the happiest marriage, or at least,
11:16
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's a sensitive situation, or at least
11:18
Speaker 1: the woman. You know, she's obviously crying because her husband's unhappy,
11:23
Speaker 1: but also probably I imagine in a situation like that,
11:27
Speaker 1: when you've planned something and it goes so wrong, it
11:30
Speaker 1: probably makes not only makes you feel happy in that
11:33
Speaker 1: unhappy in that moment, but I imagine she's feeling very sad
11:36
Speaker 1: and depressed, and it makes you wonder about the state
11:39
Speaker 1: of their marriage and whether this woman is, you know,
11:41
Speaker 1: trapped in a sort of a loveless marriage despite the
11:44
Speaker 1: fact that she's trying her best. You know, she's making efforts.
11:52
Speaker 1: And it's also quite heartbreaking because it makes you realize that,
11:56
Speaker 1: you know, a broken heart or unhappiness, loneliness. Sometimes these
12:02
Speaker 1: things can be hidden. You know, they're not obvious they
12:06
Speaker 1: can be hidden behind appearances which could otherwise be very
12:11
Speaker 1: glamorous or very sort of smart, in this case, a
12:17
Speaker 1: lovely hat and a nice special occasion in a nice restaurant.
12:21
Speaker 1: But behind this facade there's a sort of a deep
12:26
Speaker 1: loneliness and the sense that people in marriages can actually
12:33
Speaker 1: be very lonely. It can be one of the loneliest things.
12:36
Speaker 1: Not always, of course, often marriages a beautiful and happy situation,
12:41
Speaker 1: but you know, in some cases it can be actually
12:45
Speaker 1: a very sad situation. And loneliness is something that is
12:50
Speaker 1: often most deeply felt when you're in the company of
12:54
Speaker 1: other people, especially when you feel trapped in that situation
12:59
Speaker 1: and when you're having to hide your feelings because other
13:02
Speaker 1: people can see you. And this story like perfectly captures
13:06
Speaker 1: all of those things in an efficient way, only in
13:11
Speaker 1: about three hundred words, so it's really really well written.
13:15
Speaker 1: Now let's go through the story again, and this time
13:19
Speaker 1: I'm going to look at specific words and phrases. Right
13:23
Speaker 1: this is where I'm going to teach you some vocabulary
13:25
Speaker 1: by using the story. So here we go again, The
13:29
Speaker 1: Birthday Party by Catherine Brush vocabulary and I've highlighted some
13:34
Speaker 1: vocab here for us to look at. Okay, if you're
13:38
Speaker 1: listening to the audio version of this episode, you can
13:40
Speaker 1: find you can find the script for this I'll put
13:44
Speaker 1: a link to it on the episode page, so you
13:46
Speaker 1: can actually check the text and stuff like that. If
13:49
Speaker 1: you're looking at the video version, you'll be able to
13:51
Speaker 1: see the text on the screen. Another thing actually to
13:54
Speaker 1: mention is pronunciation. So just earlier there in this episode,
13:59
Speaker 1: I read through the story line by line. Now, what
14:01
Speaker 1: you could do if you want to practice your pronunciation,
14:03
Speaker 1: you could actually try to repeat those lines after me. Okay,
14:07
Speaker 1: try to repeat the story after me with exactly the
14:10
Speaker 1: same delivery. So just try and copy the way I
14:14
Speaker 1: do it, and then maybe practice it again on your own.
14:17
Speaker 1: Practice trying to deliver the story with the right pausing,
14:21
Speaker 1: the right emphasis, and so on. Okay, And another exercise
14:26
Speaker 1: you could do would be to try to retell the
14:28
Speaker 1: story in your own words, right, try to try to,
14:33
Speaker 1: you know, tell the story again but sort of spontaneously
14:37
Speaker 1: in your own words, without actually reading it from the text.
14:42
Speaker 1: So all of those things can be good ways to practice.
14:45
Speaker 1: But anyway, let's have a look now at some vocabulary.
14:47
Speaker 1: So the first line, they were a couple in their
14:51
Speaker 1: late thirties, and they looked unmistakably married. So the first
14:55
Speaker 1: thing is just this phrase in their late thirties. So
14:58
Speaker 1: you know, you can be in your your in your thirties,
15:01
Speaker 1: which means you're either thirty, you're between the ages of
15:04
Speaker 1: thirty and thirty nine, So you can be in your
15:07
Speaker 1: teens that's when you're a teenager. You can be in
15:09
Speaker 1: your twenties, in your thirties, in your forties, in your fifties,
15:12
Speaker 1: and so on. But also you can say you could
15:15
Speaker 1: be in your early thirties, or your mid thirties, or
15:18
Speaker 1: your late thirties, okay. In this case, the couple were
15:22
Speaker 1: in their late thirties, okay, and they looked unmistakably married,
15:27
Speaker 1: So it's fairly easy to understand they looked married. It
15:30
Speaker 1: looked like they were married, So they looked married, but
15:34
Speaker 1: they looked unmistakably married. Okay, they were obviously married. You
15:39
Speaker 1: couldn't mistake them for anything else, right, So if something
15:44
Speaker 1: is unmistakable, it just means it's really not easily confused
15:49
Speaker 1: for something else. Like when you see it, you immediately
15:52
Speaker 1: identify it as that thing. There's no mistaking the fact
15:55
Speaker 1: that these people were married, they were unmistakably married. Right,
15:59
Speaker 1: So unmistakable is the adjective unmistakably. In this case, it
16:04
Speaker 1: is the adverb so unmistakably married. You know, we use
16:10
Speaker 1: you know, you can use that for other things as well.
16:11
Speaker 1: If if something's obvious. For example, you smell as you
16:16
Speaker 1: walk past the bakery, you can smell the unmistakable smell
16:21
Speaker 1: of fresh bread. Right, that's using the word as an
16:25
Speaker 1: adjective unmistakable other things instead of saying they looked unmistakably married.
16:31
Speaker 1: It could be other things. Right, For example, they they
16:33
Speaker 1: looked unmistakably English, right, I don't know what would they
16:37
Speaker 1: look like if they looked unmistakably English, just like typical
16:40
Speaker 1: English people, or they looked unmistakably French. Okay, handwriting, handwriting,
16:47
Speaker 1: you know stuff that's written by hand. Handwriting. You could say,
16:52
Speaker 1: for example, this is unmistakably his handwriting. Okay, so unmistakably
16:59
Speaker 1: in this case, unmiss sstakably married. So a question about
17:06
Speaker 1: the writing or just the thought, why are they unmistakably married?
17:09
Speaker 1: What does the writer mean here? I think she's probably
17:12
Speaker 1: alluding to subtle behavior, right, which it's interesting that she
17:18
Speaker 1: chose this phrase because it does tell us something about
17:21
Speaker 1: this couple. So what did she mean when she said
17:24
Speaker 1: they were unmistakably married. She's probably referring to certain behavior. Now,
17:28
Speaker 1: when a couple are new, when they've just got together,
17:32
Speaker 1: right when they're in the early stages of a relationship,
17:35
Speaker 1: often you can tell that they're a brand new couple
17:38
Speaker 1: because they sort of their body language tells you everything
17:41
Speaker 1: you need to know, Like they can't stop looking at
17:42
Speaker 1: each other, they can't stop touching each other. It's still
17:46
Speaker 1: enjoying sort of exploring each other, exploring each other's personal space.
17:50
Speaker 1: They get lost in a love bubble, you know, the
17:53
Speaker 1: rest of the world disappears. But when a couple has
17:55
Speaker 1: been together for a long time, if they're married, they're
17:57
Speaker 1: in their late thirties, they've been married for ten years
18:00
Speaker 1: or something like that, their body language might show this
18:04
Speaker 1: and maybe they we also know that they were sitting
18:07
Speaker 1: on the on the bench right, so they're not sitting
18:09
Speaker 1: opposite each other. They're sitting next to each other, and well,
18:13
Speaker 1: what kind of body language do you imagine it could
18:16
Speaker 1: be seen here? Maybe they just weren't really there wasn't
18:18
Speaker 1: a lot of interaction going on. Maybe maybe little moments
18:22
Speaker 1: of interaction showed that they were very close, and they
18:24
Speaker 1: obviously spent a lot of time together, but maybe it
18:26
Speaker 1: was obvious that there wasn't Maybe there wasn't a lot
18:29
Speaker 1: of love between them, right, and you know that sense
18:33
Speaker 1: of mystery or attraction maybe wasn't there, or maybe there
18:37
Speaker 1: was a sense of familiarity and closeness. I don't know,
18:41
Speaker 1: but it's good writing because it does sort of. It
18:44
Speaker 1: does tell you so much. Next line, they sat on
18:49
Speaker 1: the bonquette opposite us in a little narrow restaurant having dinner.
18:53
Speaker 1: So a bonkette is just a long like a long
18:56
Speaker 1: seat which could be fitted to the wall, for example,
19:01
Speaker 1: typical in restaurants, So a long kind of bench that's
19:05
Speaker 1: probably attached to the wall in some way. That's the bonquette.
19:09
Speaker 1: They sat opposite us in a little narrow restaurant having dinner.
19:13
Speaker 1: So narrow is just the it's the opposite of wide.
19:17
Speaker 1: So that this tells us that the restaurant was quite
19:21
Speaker 1: long but narrow. So you imagine a long restaurant but
19:26
Speaker 1: where the walls on either side are actually very close
19:28
Speaker 1: because the restaurant is narrow, a bit like a corridor
19:31
Speaker 1: or something. And this is interesting because we get that
19:34
Speaker 1: sense of intimate space, right that the writer and this
19:39
Speaker 1: married couple are actually probably quite close to each other.
19:43
Speaker 1: Everyone's probably fairly close in this restaurant, which for me
19:47
Speaker 1: emphasizes the kind of the humiliation which happens later. The
19:53
Speaker 1: man's humiliation but also the wife's sadness is emphasized by
19:58
Speaker 1: the intimacy of this restaurant. That they're sitting in this
20:01
Speaker 1: narrow place with probably tables quite close together. Right. Okay,
20:09
Speaker 1: so next, the man had a round self satisfied face
20:13
Speaker 1: with glasses on it. The woman was fadingly pretty in
20:16
Speaker 1: a big hat. So the man had a round face,
20:19
Speaker 1: I mean, just round, sort of circular. Self satisfied is interesting. Now, generally,
20:27
Speaker 1: if you describe someone as being self satisfied, it's a
20:30
Speaker 1: negative phrase. So if someone is self satisfied, it means
20:34
Speaker 1: they're rather satisfied with themselves. You know, someone who thinks
20:38
Speaker 1: that they're someone who has a high opinion of themselves,
20:41
Speaker 1: someone who's rather satisfied with them with themselves. So you
20:44
Speaker 1: can imagine he's got a sort of a rather a
20:48
Speaker 1: sort of a smug look on his face, or an
20:51
Speaker 1: arrogant look on his face, you know, a self important,
20:54
Speaker 1: self satisfied look on his face. In any case, it's
20:57
Speaker 1: not very charming, she does. The writer doesn't paint a
21:01
Speaker 1: very charming, attractive picture of this man, right. He seems
21:10
Speaker 1: smug and not that attractive. Whereas the woman was fadingly
21:15
Speaker 1: pretty in a big hat. So fading fadingly pretty. Fadingly
21:20
Speaker 1: is the adverb, fading would be the adjective, And if
21:24
Speaker 1: something is fading, it means it's gradually becoming less clear,
21:27
Speaker 1: less bright, less colorful. So her prettiness, her attractiveness, was
21:33
Speaker 1: fading as she was getting older, which you know, it's
21:38
Speaker 1: often a kind of a sad thing for many people.
21:41
Speaker 1: It doesn't have to be, but it can be. And
21:44
Speaker 1: it also tells you something as well, doesn't it that
21:46
Speaker 1: you know, there's a just a certain sadness here. Okay,
21:51
Speaker 1: fadingly pretty, So she's still pretty, but her prettiness is fading. Now.
21:56
Speaker 1: That doesn't happen to everyone. Some people are pretty when young,
22:00
Speaker 1: and they stay pretty when they're old. They grow old gracefully.
22:04
Speaker 1: But I don't know. Again, I'm speculating about this relationship,
22:08
Speaker 1: but maybe there's something not quite right. In the relationship,
22:12
Speaker 1: and the sadness that she feels is starting to show,
22:16
Speaker 1: you know, on her face, and it's actually affecting her
22:19
Speaker 1: beauty in a way. So she was fadingly pretty. Her
22:24
Speaker 1: prettiness was fading. There was nothing conspicuous about them, nothing
22:30
Speaker 1: particularly noticeable. So those two lines they basically mean the
22:34
Speaker 1: same thing, because conspicuous. If something is conspicuous, it means
22:38
Speaker 1: it's noticeable, easy to notice, eye catching. Okay, I mean,
22:44
Speaker 1: the fact that she was wearing a big hat is
22:48
Speaker 1: fairly noticeable. But maybe in those days, in what I
22:52
Speaker 1: assume is like New York, in a nice restaurant in
22:54
Speaker 1: New York in the nineteen forties, a woman dressed nice
23:00
Speaker 1: in wearing a big hat was probably not uncommon, right.
23:04
Speaker 1: But other than that, it seems that there wasn't anything
23:07
Speaker 1: particularly noticeable about this couple. There was nothing conspicuous, So conspicuous, noticeable,
23:15
Speaker 1: easy to notice, eye catching, right, those are all synonyms
23:20
Speaker 1: nothing particularly noticeable. So they were just a fairly ordinary couple,
23:24
Speaker 1: I suppose, for this kind of restaurant, and that nothing
23:29
Speaker 1: obvious about them, nothing noticeable until the end of their meal,
23:33
Speaker 1: when it suddenly became obvious that this was an occasion.
23:37
Speaker 1: So an occasion could be a special occasion, like a
23:40
Speaker 1: particular event, a birthday and anniversary, a reason to celebrate,
23:45
Speaker 1: so that an occasion. So it became obvious that this
23:49
Speaker 1: was an occasion. It was actually a special moment. In fact,
23:53
Speaker 1: it was the husband's birthday and the wife had planned
23:56
Speaker 1: a little surprise for him. So I just wanted to
23:59
Speaker 1: highlight the use of past perfect here. The wife had
24:02
Speaker 1: planned a little surprise for him, so past perfect had planned.
24:07
Speaker 1: That's used because it shows that the wife planned this
24:10
Speaker 1: before the other events of the story. Right, Okay, it
24:14
Speaker 1: just shows us that the planning part happened before all
24:17
Speaker 1: the rest of the events. So past perfect is there
24:20
Speaker 1: to you. Is used there to just to show us
24:23
Speaker 1: that the planning happened before. Now, if we didn't, if
24:28
Speaker 1: the writer hadn't used past perfect, if she'd said it
24:32
Speaker 1: was the husband's birthday and the wife planned a little
24:34
Speaker 1: surprise for him, now, that could mean that she planned
24:37
Speaker 1: the surprise right there at the table. Right, it was
24:42
Speaker 1: the husband's birthday and the wife planned a surprise. That
24:45
Speaker 1: could mean that she planned it there, you see, But
24:49
Speaker 1: we want to show that the planning happened before those
24:53
Speaker 1: events in the restaurant. So that's why past perfect is used.
24:57
Speaker 1: And so the surprise in the form of a small
25:02
Speaker 1: but glossy birthday cake with one pink candle burning in
25:06
Speaker 1: the center. So it arrived in this case, the surprise
25:10
Speaker 1: arrived in the form of a cake. So in the
25:13
Speaker 1: form of here, this means that this is how the
25:18
Speaker 1: surprise was Actually, this is how the surprise happened. This
25:22
Speaker 1: is how the surprise manifested. I mean, what was the surprise?
25:26
Speaker 1: How did the surprise take shape? It arrived in the
25:30
Speaker 1: form of this birthday cake. So the birthday cake was
25:33
Speaker 1: the surprise. Right, Quite a nice phrase, like, you know,
25:39
Speaker 1: you could use that in different situations. The gift came
25:43
Speaker 1: in the form of a beautifully wrapped package. For example,
25:47
Speaker 1: their support that the support from my friends came in
25:52
Speaker 1: the form of encouraging words. The solution to the problem
25:56
Speaker 1: arrived in the form of innovative new technology. Help arrived
26:00
Speaker 1: in the form of my wife who came to rescue
26:03
Speaker 1: me from an awkward conversation. Okay, In this case, the
26:08
Speaker 1: surprise arrived in the form of a birthday cake, a
26:11
Speaker 1: small but glossy birthday cake. So the birthday cake is small,
26:16
Speaker 1: but glossy. So glossy this adjective just means shiny and smooth,
26:22
Speaker 1: so that, for example, the light reflects off the top
26:25
Speaker 1: of it. So this means it's one of those quite smart,
26:29
Speaker 1: quite fancy cakes that you see in sort of good
26:33
Speaker 1: quality cake shops. So it's got a kind of cover
26:36
Speaker 1: of I don't know what the cover would be, like
26:39
Speaker 1: a glazed cover on the top of the cake, which
26:42
Speaker 1: means it's shiny, right, a glossy cake. So it's a
26:47
Speaker 1: fairly fancy cake, even though it's small, and it's got
26:50
Speaker 1: one pink candle. I mean, the pink candle is a
26:54
Speaker 1: detail in interesting detail. Is this part of the reason
26:58
Speaker 1: why the hus and seems to be embarrassed? Is it
27:01
Speaker 1: because of the way the cake looks. It's a little
27:05
Speaker 1: bit ridiculous or a little bit funny, or even a
27:10
Speaker 1: little bit sad. Just one single birthday, one single candle
27:13
Speaker 1: in the middle of this small cake. I mean, the
27:16
Speaker 1: little pink candle might make him feel a bit ridiculous,
27:20
Speaker 1: especially if he is full of himself and self satisfied
27:23
Speaker 1: and smug and arrogance, and he thinks he's a very
27:25
Speaker 1: important person, you know, and then I'm an important person
27:30
Speaker 1: in you know, in society, and then this cake arrives,
27:33
Speaker 1: this little cake with one pink candle. I mean, it's
27:36
Speaker 1: a lovely, sweet gesture, and you know, we just want
27:42
Speaker 1: him to be touched by this, but in fact, no,
27:45
Speaker 1: he's that's not the way this guy works. Instead, he's
27:48
Speaker 1: embarrassed by this. What we want is for him to
27:52
Speaker 1: I mean, he could feel embarrassed, like that's okay, but
27:56
Speaker 1: you'd want him to feel embarrassed and then to kind
27:58
Speaker 1: of blush, you know, to go red in the and
28:00
Speaker 1: then maybe to kiss his wife and say thank you
28:03
Speaker 1: to her and tell her how much he loves her,
28:06
Speaker 1: you know, because she made the effort to get this
28:09
Speaker 1: cake for him. But he doesn't do that. He doesn't. Instead,
28:12
Speaker 1: he's just angry and embarrassed by it, which is just
28:15
Speaker 1: really sad. The head waiter brought it in and placed
28:20
Speaker 1: it before the husband, and meanwhile the violin and piano
28:23
Speaker 1: orchestra played Happy Birthday to you. So the head waiter,
28:27
Speaker 1: this is like the most important waiter in the restaurant,
28:31
Speaker 1: the person who's in charge of all the other waiters.
28:33
Speaker 1: So this probably this means that the wife probably asked
28:36
Speaker 1: the restaurant to make a special effort here, which again
28:39
Speaker 1: shows us how much care she put into this. That
28:42
Speaker 1: she actually spoke to the head waiter and everything. And
28:46
Speaker 1: it was the head waiter who brought the cake. So
28:48
Speaker 1: they're taking it, you know, fairly seriously. He placed it
28:51
Speaker 1: before the husband. He placed it. So this is the
28:54
Speaker 1: sort of thing a good waiter would do. Waiters don't
28:57
Speaker 1: just put the plate on the table. They play meaning
29:01
Speaker 1: they put it down very carefully, exactly in the right spot.
29:04
Speaker 1: So the waiter, the head waiter, came in and he
29:07
Speaker 1: placed the cake down in front of him, and meanwhile,
29:12
Speaker 1: the orchestra played Happy Birthday, right, So meanwhile just means
29:17
Speaker 1: at the same time. Okay, you could replace the word
29:20
Speaker 1: meanwhile with the phrase at the same time. So the
29:24
Speaker 1: headwaiter brought the cake and at the same time the
29:26
Speaker 1: orchestra played Happy Birthday, Happy birthday to you, oh God,
29:38
Speaker 1: and the wife beamed with shy pride over her little surprise.
29:43
Speaker 1: She beamed with pride. So to beam in this case
29:49
Speaker 1: this means that her face glowed. Her face sort of
29:56
Speaker 1: glowed with pride right now. To beam means that light
30:01
Speaker 1: comes out. For example, a torch if You've got a
30:06
Speaker 1: torch which you use to you to see in the dark.
30:10
Speaker 1: You turn the torch on a flashlight they call it
30:13
Speaker 1: in American English a torch. When the light comes out
30:19
Speaker 1: the end of the torch, it beams out, Similarly the
30:22
Speaker 1: headlights of your car. The light beams out of your headlights.
30:26
Speaker 1: A lighthouse, the light beams out. So in this case,
30:29
Speaker 1: her face beamed with pride, right with shy pride, Okay,
30:37
Speaker 1: pride to feel proud. She's happy, she's satisfied with what
30:40
Speaker 1: she's done. She's put a lot of effort into this.
30:43
Speaker 1: She's hoping this is going to go well. She's really
30:46
Speaker 1: trying hard, and when the cake comes in, her face
30:49
Speaker 1: beamed with shy pride. I've mentioned a torch and a flashlight.
30:54
Speaker 1: Torch in British English and flashlight in American English. There
30:58
Speaker 1: is only a couple of moments in the story where
31:01
Speaker 1: it's obviously American English. For example, the spelling of the
31:04
Speaker 1: word center the birthday cake with one pink candle burning
31:08
Speaker 1: in the center c e nt r in American English,
31:12
Speaker 1: c e ntre in British English. But it's otherwise. It's
31:17
Speaker 1: This is just an example of how for the most part,
31:20
Speaker 1: this story just shows how American English and British English
31:23
Speaker 1: are just like identical, because there aren't really many other
31:26
Speaker 1: differences that I can notice. So the the wife beamed
31:31
Speaker 1: with shy pride over her little surprise, and such few
31:35
Speaker 1: people as there were in the restaurant, meaning you know,
31:38
Speaker 1: the even the small number of people in the restaurant
31:42
Speaker 1: try to help out with a pattering of applause. So
31:45
Speaker 1: applause is when people clap. Right at the end of
31:51
Speaker 1: a theater play or at the end of a music concert,
31:54
Speaker 1: people applaud and there is applause. Right, a pattering of
31:59
Speaker 1: applause means like a little bit of applause, like just
32:02
Speaker 1: a few people kind of clapping a little bit in
32:05
Speaker 1: the background, okay, right, the sound of a few people clapping.
32:12
Speaker 1: It became clear at once that help was needed because
32:15
Speaker 1: the husband was not pleased. So it became clear, meaning
32:19
Speaker 1: it became obvious. It became clear at once at once,
32:23
Speaker 1: meaning immediately, So it became obvious immediately, It became clear
32:29
Speaker 1: at once that help was needed. It's interesting that the
32:32
Speaker 1: writer has used was needed, which is passive voice, because
32:37
Speaker 1: needed by who? Right, She doesn't actually say it directly,
32:44
Speaker 1: but we know that we're talking about the wife, that
32:47
Speaker 1: the wife needed help, and you know, the writer is
32:52
Speaker 1: the narrator obviously sees that the woman is helpless in
32:55
Speaker 1: this situation. She's in trouble, but nobody can help her
32:59
Speaker 1: without making it worse. It became clear that help was
33:03
Speaker 1: needed by not mentioning, by not saying it directly, it
33:07
Speaker 1: somehow makes it a bit more powerful. It became clear
33:09
Speaker 1: at once that the wife needed help. It's a bit
33:12
Speaker 1: too direct, but saying it became clear at once that
33:16
Speaker 1: help was needed somehow is a bit more discreet. By
33:22
Speaker 1: not putting the wife right into the middle of the sentence,
33:26
Speaker 1: you know, it makes it a little bit more impersonal. Anyway,
33:29
Speaker 1: it became clear at once that help was needed by
33:31
Speaker 1: the wife because the husband was not pleased. Instead, he
33:35
Speaker 1: was hotly embarrassed. So we know embarrassed, but hotly embarrassed.
33:41
Speaker 1: Now that's not a very common collocation. We don't often
33:44
Speaker 1: say hotly embarrassed. But it's good use of language because
33:49
Speaker 1: it does tell us about how the husband felt. And
33:53
Speaker 1: he wasn't just embarrassed, but he was angry and embarrassed
33:58
Speaker 1: right and embarrassed and anger and you can imagine that
34:01
Speaker 1: his face was bright red, and uh, you know, we
34:05
Speaker 1: associate heat in emotion. We associate heat and being hot
34:09
Speaker 1: with anger and strong emotions. So he was hotly embarrassed
34:15
Speaker 1: suggests that he was like really embarrassed and also angry,
34:18
Speaker 1: and he was indignant, So indignant means angry, annoyed, frustrated,
34:26
Speaker 1: which is a pity that that was his reaction. You
34:31
Speaker 1: looked at him and you saw this and you thought, oh, now,
34:34
Speaker 1: don't be like that. Don't be like that, don't be
34:38
Speaker 1: that way. Okay, don't be don't be angry, don't be
34:42
Speaker 1: like that. But he was like that. And as soon
34:47
Speaker 1: as the little cake had been deposited on the table,
34:51
Speaker 1: and the orchestra had finished the birthday piece, and the
34:54
Speaker 1: general attention had shifted from the man and the woman.
34:57
Speaker 1: So as soon as the birthday cake had been deposit
35:00
Speaker 1: So deposited, it's fairly. It just means put on the table.
35:05
Speaker 1: It's slightly formal, slightly impersonal language, right, just deposited on
35:11
Speaker 1: the table. It sounds I don't know, it just sounds
35:15
Speaker 1: slightly transactional language, like you know, normally we'd say money
35:18
Speaker 1: is deposited into a bank account, right, so it's kind
35:21
Speaker 1: of slightly cold transactional language. As soon as the cake
35:24
Speaker 1: had been deposited on the table, we start to get
35:28
Speaker 1: a sort of sense of an emotional detachment or something.
35:32
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm reading too much into it, but it was
35:34
Speaker 1: interesting the use of the word deposited just means put
35:37
Speaker 1: on the table, delivered. And the orchestra had finished the
35:40
Speaker 1: birthday piece, and the general attention had shifted from the
35:43
Speaker 1: man and the woman. So attention shifted. It had shifted
35:48
Speaker 1: as soon as right, as soon as and then pass perfect,
35:51
Speaker 1: meaning as soon as when all these things had been completed,
35:55
Speaker 1: the man said something. So once all those he waited
35:58
Speaker 1: for all those things to be done right, So once
36:02
Speaker 1: they were done and finished, that's when he chose to
36:04
Speaker 1: say what he said. So the general attention had shifted
36:08
Speaker 1: from the man and the woman shifted just means moved right,
36:12
Speaker 1: moved away. So everyone was looking at the couple when
36:14
Speaker 1: the cake arrived, But then people's attention shifted away from them.
36:19
Speaker 1: It moved away from them. And when all of those
36:22
Speaker 1: things had happened, I saw him say something to her
36:26
Speaker 1: under his breath, some punishing thing, quick and curt and unkind.
36:33
Speaker 1: So I saw him say something to her under his breath.
36:36
Speaker 1: So to say something under your breath means to say
36:40
Speaker 1: something in a very quiet voice, in a whisper so
36:43
Speaker 1: that other people can't hear. Like if you say something
36:48
Speaker 1: under your breath, if you're trying to whisper, so other
36:51
Speaker 1: people can't hear you. Right, So to whisper, to say
36:59
Speaker 1: something to your breath, some punishing thing, punishing, So a
37:07
Speaker 1: comment that was designed to punish her, to make her
37:10
Speaker 1: feel bad, because in his mind, the thing that she'd
37:14
Speaker 1: done was not good, And so he says something nasty
37:19
Speaker 1: to her as a sort of punishment, a punishing comment,
37:24
Speaker 1: a comment that's going to make her feel bad. We
37:28
Speaker 1: don't know what it is, right, We don't know what
37:29
Speaker 1: he said to her. We can only imagine what he
37:32
Speaker 1: said to her, right, But I mean it's probably something like,
37:38
Speaker 1: you know, how dare you embarrass me like this in public?
37:41
Speaker 1: You know, some stupid cake or something that's you know,
37:45
Speaker 1: going to really hurt, some punishing thing. Quick and curt
37:49
Speaker 1: and unkind so quick meaning just a few words, Kurt, kurt.
37:54
Speaker 1: This adjectives mean. This adjective means brief, right with a
37:59
Speaker 1: few only, like a short thing to say, but rudely
38:03
Speaker 1: brief right, rude because it's so short and unkind, unkind
38:10
Speaker 1: meaning cruel, So it would be something like how dare you?
38:13
Speaker 1: Or how stupid of you? Something like that, And then
38:19
Speaker 1: the writer continues, I couldn't bear to look at the woman, then,
38:23
Speaker 1: so I stared at my plate and waited for quite
38:26
Speaker 1: a long time. I couldn't bear to look, right, can't bear,
38:31
Speaker 1: couldn't bear. Now, if you can't bear to do something,
38:33
Speaker 1: it just means you can't stand doing it. You just can't.
38:39
Speaker 1: It's too painful, too uncomfortable to do it, for example,
38:43
Speaker 1: looking at the couple, because this poor woman is so
38:46
Speaker 1: upset and the man is so angry and so unreasonable
38:49
Speaker 1: and mean, and it's just she couldn't bear to look.
38:54
Speaker 1: So we say can't bear to do something, We say
38:58
Speaker 1: can't stand doing something, And we also can say it
39:02
Speaker 1: can't bring myself to do something. I just couldn't. I
39:06
Speaker 1: couldn't bear to look. I couldn't bring myself to look.
39:11
Speaker 1: I can't stand seeing things like that. And the story continues,
39:18
Speaker 1: not long enough though, so she because she looked at
39:20
Speaker 1: her plate and waited for quite a long time. But
39:23
Speaker 1: not long enough though, Notice the use of the word
39:27
Speaker 1: though at the end. I've mentioned this before, but though
39:32
Speaker 1: at the end like that, it's like saying but right,
39:37
Speaker 1: But we normally put butt in between two contrasting things.
39:42
Speaker 1: So I looked at my plate for a long time,
39:44
Speaker 1: but not long enough. But we can use though at
39:48
Speaker 1: the end, right, I looked at my plate for a
39:51
Speaker 1: long time, not long enough though. So it does the
39:54
Speaker 1: same job as saying but in the middle, but we
39:56
Speaker 1: just put it at the end. It's very common in
39:58
Speaker 1: spoken English. So not long enough though, because she was
40:02
Speaker 1: still crying when I finally glanced over there again, So
40:06
Speaker 1: when I glanced to glance is just to look quickly.
40:11
Speaker 1: So she was looking at her plate, and she had
40:14
Speaker 1: a quick look, So just glanced looked quickly because she
40:18
Speaker 1: was still crying when she glanced over at them, crying
40:23
Speaker 1: quietly and heartbrokenly and hopelessly all to herself under the
40:28
Speaker 1: gay big brim of her best hat. So this is
40:31
Speaker 1: really heartbreaking, Like the really heartbreaking part right, It does
40:38
Speaker 1: tell you the way in which she's crying that she's
40:40
Speaker 1: just feels so sad and lonely at this point, And
40:44
Speaker 1: it's from a language point of view, there's adverbs here, right,
40:47
Speaker 1: How was she crying? She was crying quietly. She was
40:50
Speaker 1: crying heartbrokenly. She was crying hopelessly. She was crying all
40:55
Speaker 1: to herself, and she was crying under the gay big
40:59
Speaker 1: brim of her best hat. So crying quietly, I think
41:02
Speaker 1: we understand that crying heartbrokenly because she felt heartbroken because
41:09
Speaker 1: of the behavior, the actions, the reaction of this husband,
41:16
Speaker 1: this horrible husband, crying hopelessly. Where Yeah, I suppose even
41:25
Speaker 1: when she's tried really hard to do something cute and
41:27
Speaker 1: special on his birthday, the way he reacted was just
41:31
Speaker 1: like so far away from what she hoped that that
41:35
Speaker 1: kind of can break someone's hope. Right, So she's crying
41:40
Speaker 1: with a deep sense of hopelessness all to herself. So
41:45
Speaker 1: she was doing it all by herself, meaning on her own,
41:49
Speaker 1: but also crying to herself, not crying to anyone else.
41:54
Speaker 1: So you got crying all by herself, which means she
41:58
Speaker 1: was crying on her own but all to herself, means
42:01
Speaker 1: that she was the only audience of her crying, like
42:05
Speaker 1: the husband didn't even really care or wasn't even giving
42:08
Speaker 1: her attention to the fact, giving attention to the fact
42:11
Speaker 1: that she was crying, So she was just all on
42:13
Speaker 1: her own, crying to herself. She was the only witness,
42:16
Speaker 1: the only audience to her crying, right the husband apparently
42:20
Speaker 1: doesn't care and doing this under the gay, big brim
42:25
Speaker 1: of her best hat. So this is a particularly sad
42:28
Speaker 1: image because of the contrast between this lovely, otherwise exuberant
42:34
Speaker 1: hat and the actual feeling of the woman underneath it. It
42:40
Speaker 1: should have been a happy, care free occasion, but she's
42:43
Speaker 1: just heartbroken, So that emphasizes the sadness the contrast between
42:48
Speaker 1: the two things. But the gay big brim of her hat.
42:50
Speaker 1: So the brim, the brim is the bit that goes
42:54
Speaker 1: around the edge of the hat, the widest part that's
42:56
Speaker 1: the edge of the hat, the brim of the hat. Okay,
43:00
Speaker 1: if it's a baseball cap, the baseball cap has a
43:02
Speaker 1: brim at the front, and you can slide it around
43:05
Speaker 1: the back if you want. You can bend the brim
43:08
Speaker 1: of the hat. If it's a you know, another type
43:11
Speaker 1: of hat, the brim goes all the way round. In
43:13
Speaker 1: this case, it was a big brim and the gay
43:17
Speaker 1: big brim of her hat. So I mean this shows
43:21
Speaker 1: I guess the age of the story because we don't
43:25
Speaker 1: normally use the word gay like that these days, because
43:27
Speaker 1: it used to just mean happy, care free. Happy. These days,
43:32
Speaker 1: obviously it means something else. But in those days, it
43:35
Speaker 1: just meant care free and happy. So that's why the
43:38
Speaker 1: word gay is being used here. Her happy, care free,
43:43
Speaker 1: exuberant hat that she was wearing, she was crying all
43:46
Speaker 1: by herself, all to herself, underneath the brim of this,
43:51
Speaker 1: of this, of this hat. And that's the end of
43:54
Speaker 1: the story. Okay, h what do you think of that?
44:00
Speaker 1: I'd like to know your comments. Feel free to leave
44:03
Speaker 1: your comments in the comments section. What do you think
44:05
Speaker 1: of the situation? So you know, what do you think
44:08
Speaker 1: the husband said, any idea what he might have said?
44:12
Speaker 1: How do you think the woman felt in that moment
44:16
Speaker 1: the wife? Have you ever witnessed something you know when
44:20
Speaker 1: people watching? What did you think of the story? Other things? Remember,
44:28
Speaker 1: you could practice repeating that story after me. Just go
44:31
Speaker 1: back to the beginning of the episode, to the moment
44:34
Speaker 1: where I told the story line by line. You could
44:36
Speaker 1: just practice reading through it again and again. And as
44:41
Speaker 1: I said before, you should try perhaps retelling the story
44:44
Speaker 1: in your own words too. And another exercise you could
44:47
Speaker 1: do Another little speaking challenge that you could do would
44:50
Speaker 1: be to remember a time when you saw some people
44:54
Speaker 1: doing something when you people watched and you saw something happen.
44:57
Speaker 1: Could you describe that? Do you think you could make
44:59
Speaker 1: that to a story? It would be a good exercise
45:02
Speaker 1: for your English practice practice practice, practice, practice practice. The
45:06
Speaker 1: five p's Okay, that's the end of this episode. If
45:10
Speaker 1: you like my story episodes, obviously, I've done a few
45:13
Speaker 1: of these now, which you can find in my episode
45:16
Speaker 1: archive Learn English with a short Story. But I've got
45:19
Speaker 1: others as well. I've done about ten story episodes in
45:23
Speaker 1: my premium podcast, and so you can subscribe to the
45:28
Speaker 1: Premium podcast. You can add all the premium episodes to
45:31
Speaker 1: a podcast app on your phone, and when you do that,
45:35
Speaker 1: you can listen to the episodes. You can also access
45:37
Speaker 1: links in the show notes for each episode, links for
45:41
Speaker 1: PDFs and video versions. And I've done yeah, about ten
45:44
Speaker 1: story episodes. Most of those stories in the premium section
45:48
Speaker 1: are true stories about my own life that I've written myself,
45:51
Speaker 1: including stories of my childhood, like stuff that's sort of funny,
45:54
Speaker 1: stuff that happened to me. And I do a similar
45:57
Speaker 1: thing to what I do in these learning with the
46:00
Speaker 1: short story episodes tell you the story and then break
46:04
Speaker 1: it down for vocabulary, and then give you various of
46:06
Speaker 1: grammar vocabulary practice exercises, memory exercises to help you remember
46:12
Speaker 1: the vocabulary, and then dedicated pronunciation episodes to help you
46:16
Speaker 1: practice repeating after me. That's what you can find in
46:19
Speaker 1: those storytime episodes in my premium subscription. Yeah, okay. The
46:26
Speaker 1: way it works as you sign up, and when you've
46:28
Speaker 1: signed up, you can just really easily add your premium
46:31
Speaker 1: subscription to a podcast app on your phone, and then
46:34
Speaker 1: it gives you the full list of all of my episodes,
46:37
Speaker 1: all of my free episodes with no advertising, and also
46:40
Speaker 1: all my premium episodes in there too, and then you
46:43
Speaker 1: can just listen to the normal episodes, listen to the
46:45
Speaker 1: premium episodes, and then find the notes in the show notes,
46:49
Speaker 1: that's where you find links for video versions and PDFs. Okay,
46:53
Speaker 1: So if you want to do that, you can just
46:54
Speaker 1: you know, be my guest of course teacher Luke dot
46:57
Speaker 1: co dot uk slash premium in or just click the
47:01
Speaker 1: link in the description to find out about Luke's English
47:04
Speaker 1: podcast Premium. Okay, great, have a lovely day, afternoon morning
47:09
Speaker 1: evening night. Wherever you are in the world, whatever you're doing,
47:12
Speaker 1: I hope that you are having a nice time out
47:15
Speaker 1: there in podcast land. Thank you for listening to this episode.
47:18
Speaker 1: I will speak to you again soon in the next one,
47:22
Speaker 1: but for now, it's just time to say goodbye, bye
47:25
Speaker 1: bye bo bo Boe.