This episode of Real English Conversations is part 4 of Lori and Kyla's conversation about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In this part of the conversation they digress to talk about interruptions and distractions, and how these affect them when they are trying to work. Kyla tells Lori about how she had to stop the internet service at her house in order to finish recording her band's album.

The transcript contains the full text of the conversation, plus a bonus vocabulary lesson and language usage notes.

This episode of Real English Conversations is part 4 of Lori and Kyla's discussion about daily routines, based on their reading of the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. The transcript includes explanations of the vocabulary and key grammar and usage points. It's a great tool for you to test your listening comprehension, or to use as a basis for discussion with your teacher, your language exchange partner, or your other friends who are learning English.

Introduction

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 3 of my conversation with Kyla. We are talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In this part we talk about the routines and practices that many creative people have in common.

Now before you listen I have to warn you: this is a particularly challenging conversation. Here is why: because both Kyla and I read the book, we have a lot of shared information in our heads. When speakers have a lot of shared information, they often leave out details. They know that the other person already knows the information, so they don't have to say it.

If only one of us had read the book, this conversation would have been very different. We would have had to do a lot more explaining, and mention a lot more specific details.

What does all that mean for you? As you are listening, don't worry too much if some things are unclear, or if you feel that you are missing information. To help you out, I have marked the particularly challenging parts in colored text in the transcript. And at the end of the transcript, I've included a short quote from the book so you can read the part we are talking about.

If you want to read along as you listen, you can download the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

After the conversation I'll be back with five questions you can use for speaking practice.

OK, let's get on with the conversation!

Conversation transcript

Kyla: That's right, exactly. And the amount...it seems a real recurring theme in the book is three hours. The amount of people that did, that worked for three hours a day that got all their...even – even the ones that didn't have jobs that had their time completely open, a lot of them seemed to work for three hours. And the rest of the time would be, you know, visiting and going for long walks and...

Lori: Yeah, that was –

Kyla: ...having luxurious dinners.

Lori: That was another really striking one – the role of walking.

Kyla: Yes.

Beethoven was one of the many creative people whose daily routine involved strong coffee.Lori: Because you had these people, like you say, they would work their stretch of – of three or four hours. I think– I think Beethoven is an example of this. He would– he would work, get up in the morning, drink his coffee. I think he was the one who counted the [coffee] beans. [laughs]

Kyla: He counted the beans! Yeah. [laughs]

Lori: How many was it in each cup?

Kyla: 60 or something?

Lori: Yeah.

Kyla: Was it 60? [laughs]

Lori: That sounds right. Yeah, he measured up precisely 60 beans for his coffee and would work. And then he would take these long, vigorous walks armed with note paper to jot down ideas, I guess. And I think it was also Beethoven who would, during his work periods when he would feel stuck, he would get up and go walk outside for a little bit and found that , kind of, unlocked his creativity.

Download the transcript for the rest of this Real English conversation, the vocabulary lesson and bonus discussion questions for speaking practice.

This is the transcript for Better at English "Real English Conversations" episode 38. Daily rituals and routines part 3. You'll hear Lori and Kyla continuing their discussion about the routines and practices of creative people. Their discussion is based on reading the book "Daily Rituals" by Mason Currey. The transcript contains the full conversation, a vocabulary lesson, and 5 discussion questions for speaking practice.

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 2 of my conversation with Kyla. We're discussing a book that we both really liked. It's called Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey.

The book describes the daily routines and habits of 161 creative people, people like writers, painters, musicians, philosophers, and scientists. Now, while I love the book, I don't recommend it for English learners at lower levels. This is because it has a lot of quotations from sources that are very old, and some of that language is very difficult. But if you are an upper-intermediate to advanced learner of English who needs to read English literature from different periods, it might be a great place to start. The chapters are very short — sometimes only a half a page. That means you can have the satisfaction of finishing a chapter without having to spend too much time. And it's easier to do deep language analysis and study if the text is not too long.

Right then...in this conversation you'll hear a lot of American English idiomatic expressions and a bit of slang. There are also many examples of a politeness strategy called "hedging." Remember, this was the first time Kyla and I ever spoke, so we were being careful not to be too direct. Listen particularly for language like "kind of," "sort of," and "I think." Hedges like these keep us from sounding to direct or firm in our opinions.

As always, you can find the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

OK, here comes the conversation!

CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT

Kyla: Well, I was just going to say, that book came out of blog posts, didn't it? Like, was he blogging? [note: you can find the original blog here]

Lori: I believe the story is, he's – he's a...he's actually a published author; quite a prolific author, I think, in– in, like, magazines and things like that. And he did have this blog that, I guess, started out just as some kind of personal interest.

Kyla: Right.

Lori: And then someone got in touch with him saying, "Hey, do you...this would make a really cool book," and so he did the extra work too to turn it into a book. And I'm glad he did because it's really fascinating.

Kyla: Yeah. [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Really interesting.

Kyla: It is —

Lori: Um...

Kyla: Well, it's — oh, you go ahead.

Lori: No, no. Go ahead.

Kyla: I was– I was just going to say, it actually kind of makes me really..."Why wasn't I a writer?! It seems like they have it so easy!" [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Is that based on– on reading about the habits of writers in the books or the book, I'm —

Kyla: Yes. Yeah, exactly. That was...by – by the end of it, it was just like, yeah.

Lori: That's funny you had that reaction because I actually thought that writing seemed really, really freaking hard.

Kyla: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Like, really hard. I guess, some of the things that– that struck me that all the things that the writers do to try to make it easier on themselves, like, I really [laughs] — one thing, I can't remember which person it was, but there was someone who was, like, totally taking Benzedrine which is, I guess, apparently, Adderall.

Kyla: Right. [laughs]

Lori: And after reading that passage, I was like, "Hey man! I want to get me some of that stuff! [laughs] How can I...that's my problem too! I can't focus. I can't concentrate. Like, sign me up!" [laughs] And coffee, as well. I was surprised at how many people really depended on stimulants like coffee.

Kyla: Yeah. And it seems like, every, like,

Transcript for Real English conversations eposode 37, Daily Rituals part 2. Download the transcript and read along as you listen to check your understanding.

In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear Lori talking to Kyla, who is a musician just like Lori. They met on Skype to talk about a book that they both enjoyed, "Daily Rituals,", by Mason Currey.

It turned out that Kyla and Lori had a lot more to talk about than the book! In fact, they didn’t even start talking about the book until several minutes into the conversation. So you’ll have to wait until part two for that.

In this first part, you’ll hear them breaking the ice by talking about guitars and practicing and other things we have in common. This was a normal thing to do because it was the first time they ever spoke to each other.

You’ll be hearing lot of informal American English, including tons of phrasal verbs. The best way to learn idiomatic expressions and phrasal verbs is in context. So make sure to download the free transcript and bonus vocabulary lesson so you can read along while you listen, and study the vocabulary. You'll hear phrases like:

to step up to the plate

to come up with something

to streamline

freaky (adv., adj.)

to get used to something

to pick something up

halfway decent

to circle back (to) something

Download the full transcript of Real English Conversations episode 037: Daily rituals part 1. Lori and Kyla talk about daily routines, practicing guitar, and how to deal with the sucky feeling of being a beginner.

In this Real English Conversations podcast, you'll hear Lori and her mom talking about their bedtime routines and what they do to get good night's sleep. The conversation includes lots of idioms and phrases related to going to bed, sleeping, waking up, and daily routines. Make sure to go to www.betteratenglish.com/003 to download the PDF for the vocabulary notes. The vocabulary notes focus on multi-word verbs (phrasal verbs) and idioms.

Before you start listening, it's a good idea to warm up and prepare your brain for vocabulary related to the topic. You can do this by thinking about the following questions:

How many verbs (action words) can you think of related to sleep?

How would you describe your daily routines for going to bed and getting up?

How well do you sleep?

What helps you sleep well, or makes you sleep worse?

Do you use electronic devices (phones, tablets, computers, TV's) right before bed, or maybe even IN bed? How do you think this affects your sleep quality?

What advice would you give a friend who wanted to sleep better?

Now you are ready to listen. As you listen, try to notice new or interesting language items. Noticing new language is super important for you learning progress. It makes sense — before you can learn and use new language, you have to notice it! As you read and/or listen, look for words, phrases or grammatical patterns that interest you. Make a note of them. Test yourself later to see how much you can remember. Making flashcards or using a spaced repetition program like Anki can help you learn new items faster.

The next step is to try to use the new language items. Good luck!

Lori talks to you about one of her favorite quotes: 80% of success is showing up. You'll learn what it means and who said it. And if you're feeling discouraged with your English progress, you'll learn how resolving to keep "showing up" can get you back on track with your learning.