Today’s episode features an interview with one of Andrew’s best friends, Luke. Join them as they talk about how they met, Luke’s experiences living in Asia, and his hilarious stories about travelling in Australia!

 

 

Sample transcript:

Andrew: And so I’m curious. Why are you living in China? You’re a Canadian. Why are you on the other side of the world in this foreign land?

Luke: Well, I used to live in Korea, but after I came back, I decided that I would get my teaching certificate, so I went to school for a year and got that. And by the end of the year, I was starting to think, “Oh, where can I get a job?” I didn’t really like the idea of going around to different schools and having to go to new places every day and meet new students, so I thought… I had an opportunity in China to get a full-time contract there.

Andrew: Ah, right. Because this is a problem for a lot of new teachers in Canada. When you start, it’s often difficult to get a full-time, permanent job, right?

Luke: Yeah, that’s true. It’s almost impossible.

Andrew: So you have to start by being a substitute teacher, and that’s when you’re sort of on call, so you’ll get a call at 6 in the morning and the principal of the school will say, “Oh, one of our teachers is sick. We need you to substitute for this teacher. Can you please show up at 8:00?” And that isn’t really that great of a job. It’s difficult, right? Because you don’t know the students and you’re only there for one day, so…

Luke: Yeah. It can be a little stressful.

Andrew: Yeah, for sure. It’s very stressful and it’s kind of something that all teachers in Canada have to go through these days. But you decided, “I’m not gonna do that. I’m gonna have my own class. I’m gonna have my full-time students, but I’m gonna do it in China.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

Are you a morning person? If so, this episode is for you! Join Andrew and Maura for a conversation about what they do each and every morning. You’ll learn more about them than you ever thought you would!

Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:

* To get used to something

* A morning person

* The sweet spot

* To bond over something

* A camp

* To carpool / a carpool

* A cuppa joe

* To get something going

Sample transcript

Maura:

I don’t enjoy getting up very early, but I also don’t like to sleep very late because then I waste a lot of the day. So I like to get up between eight and nine o’clock in the morning, when I have a choice. When I have to go to work every day, I don’t get to decide.

Andrew:

You have to find that sweet spot right between waking up too early and too

late.

Maura:

Yeah, that’s right. So, for me, the first thing that I do when I get up is have something to eat. I like to have a little breakfast and I usually drink tea.

Andrew:

Tea? Right on. You’re just like Harp.

Maura:

Sometimes I have a coffee, but most of the time, I drink tea. And, yeah, I know that Harp loves tea too; we’ve bonded over it.

Andrew:

So you have some breakfast and you have a cup of tea, and then what? Are you right out the door to go to work, or do you do anything else?

Maura:

Well, at this point, Andrew, I’m still in my pyjamas, so I go to the bathroom and I wash my face and I wet my hair because it’s true that many people in Canada shower in the morning, but I prefer to shower at night. So in the morning, I just wash my face and fix my hair because after I sleep on it, it can look a little bit crazy.

Andrew:

I was going to mention that there are two different types of people: people who shower at night and people who shower in the morning. And so you have your showers at night and I’m in the other camp; I’m a person who takes a shower in the morning, because if I don’t, I feel very sleepy. It wakes me up.

Maura:

It’s funny because I used to take showers in the morning, but ever since I started taking showers at night, it makes me feel sleepy, so when I take a shower, it relaxes me and now it makes me feel like I want to go to sleep.

Andrew:

So we’re totally opposites. The shower helps you go to sleep and the shower helps me wake up.

Maura:

Yeah. So, after I get ready in the bathroom, I get dressed, and then I make sure that I have everything I need, like my keys, my sunglasses, my cell phone, and my wallet. And then I’m out the door.

Andrew:

And now, when you go to work, are you driving to work? Are you taking the metro? Do you carpool? How do you commute?

Maura:

I drive to work in my car. I could take the metro, but it’s much longer in my case, so I prefer to drive. So, Andrew, you’ve only told us that you take a shower in the morning. You have to tell us the rest of the details in your morning routine.

Andrew:

Well, as I mentioned a few episodes ago, I’m a big coffee drinker, so I definitely have to make sure I have my cuppa joe in the morning to help wake me up.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

Do you dream every night? In this episode, Andrew and Harp take a trip to dreamland. Join them as they talk all about dreams, nightmares, and bizarre sleep habits. Don’t sleep on this episode. It’s not to be missed!

Expressions included in the Learning Materials:

* Flabbergasted

* To recharge your batteries

* A trigger

* An old wives’ tale

* To dial something back

* Gibberish

* Far-fetched

* To sleep like a log

* To pass out

* A pet peeve

* Like nails on a blackboard

* The heebie-jeebies

Sample transcript

Andrew:

I think, scientifically, we do dream every night, but I can’t remember them very often.

Harp:

Yeah. I know a lot of people keep, kind of, dream journals by their bed so they remember. Because you forget by the time you’re awake in the daytime. But, no, I’ve tried that once and when I woke up, it was just gibberish and I couldn’t read my own writing.

Andrew:

That is so funny because, actually, I tried this recently. I heard a friend of mine talking about lucid dreaming. Do you know this?

Harp:

No. I don’t know it.

Andrew:

So, lucid dreaming is apparently… I don’t know if this is real or not, but when you can gain consciousness in your dreams and you can control your dreams, so you can sort of decide what happens in your dreams.

Harp:

That sounds like something from a sci-fi movie.

Andrew:

I agree, but he said that the way that he was able to achieve this lucid state was by keeping a dream journal. So I thought, “Hmm. OK. Let me try this.” But the same thing happens. I was just writing notes on my phone about my dream, you know, as soon as I woke up. And then when I went to review, it was just gibberish. I couldn’t understand it at all.

Harp:

That’s funny. Yeah, I’ve never been able to keep a dream journal.

Andrew: 

Yeah. And then I decided that I don’t really care about lucid dreaming, so I just gave up.

Harp:

You know what happens to me sometimes? It’ll be in the middle of the day and I’ll have, kind of, that déjà vu feeling and I’ll be like, “Why was I…?” And I’ll realize, no, it was actually a dream that I had the night before.

For a complete transcript, click:

  

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

Have you ever pretended to be something you’re not? If so, you’ll relate to today’s Catchword episode. Join Andrew and Maura as they introduce and explain three expressions that are used to describe people and things that are inauthentic or fake.

Expressions included in the learning materials

* Same old, same old

* To be on it

* Laid-back

* Fishy

* To front

* Well put

* A poseur

* To call someone out

* At the heart of something

* A total 180

* Bubblegum pop

* A sham

Sample transcript

Andrew:

How about we move on to our third and final expression for today’s episode.

Maura:

All right. What is it?

Andrew:

Drum roll, please. It’s a sham.

Maura:

Right, a sham is a person who pretends to be something that they’re not. So just like to front, or if you call someone a poseur, it’s really the same explanation. You’re talking about a person that is not being authentic, that is pretending to be something that is not really them.

Andrew: 

So a sham is just any person who pretends to be something they’re not. And when I hear this expression, a sham, I immediately think of a business context, maybe a salesman or a businessperson who is pretending that they are maybe more successful than they actually are, that’s what I think of when I hear a sham.

Maura:

Yeah, it’s true that often with these expressions, a person is pretending to be something bigger or more impressive than they actually are. I mean, why would you want to pretend you’re less?

Andrew:

Yeah, no, that’s an interesting point. And I don’t think there are any expressions—I can’t think of any off the top of my head, at least—that describe the opposite, when you’re downsizing yourself, but there are lots, like we’re showing you here today, that describe when you’re pretending to be something you’re not, when you’re trying to make yourself look better.

 

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

Do you ever find yourself looking at your smartphone just a little too often? If so, you might be a tech addict! In this Simplified Speech episode, Andrew and Maura get to the bottom of addiction to technology. Join them as they talk all about their technological weaknesses!

Andrew:

Well, it’s funny that we’re talking about phones because the topic for today’s episode is technology, and specifically using technology a little too much, relying on technology too much, being an addict.

Maura:

It’s interesting because I think that it’s hard to say if a person is addicted or not. I think that many people would say that they’re not addicted, but they actually use technology—specifically their cell phones—a lot.

Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:

to plug something

to spread the word

word for word

an eye-opener

quite the something

to turn out

–esque

to feed an addiction

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

There’s nothing better than a good page-turner, is there? In this episode, Harp and Andrew talk all about reading. Join them as they discuss their reading habits, the books they had to read for school, and their favourite novels of all time.

Expressions included in the Learning Materials:

* To leave an impression on someone

* To be big on something

* A bookworm I feel you

* The wrong side of the tracks

* To speak to you

* To be into something

* Magical realism

* On the flip side

* To branch away

 

Sample Dialogue:

Harp: Pretty good. I’m a little bit tired right now because I just came back from a work trip.

Andrew: A work trip? Like a business trip?

Harp: Yup. I was on a business trip to our Portland, Maine, office.

Andrew: Portland, Maine. I’ve been to Portland, Oregon, on the West Coast of the United States, but I’ve never been to Portland, Maine.

Harp: Everyone thought, when I said that I was going to Portland, that I was going to Portland, Oregon. And then when I told them I was driving there, they got even more concerned because they thought, “How are you gonna drive all the way across the country?” And they just got confused. But no, I went to Portland, Maine, which is a beautiful little city. And I was there for a conference, and it was very, very interesting but exhausting.

Andrew: Exhausting? But it’s a nice little place?

Harp: It’s very nice. I really recommend you go there. I don’t know if you’ve been to Maine before, but I’m a big fan.

Andrew: I’ve never been there. I’ll have to check it out sometime.

Harp: Yup. You will. ’Cause Portland’s right on the water, and it’s got all these kind of old streets. It looks a little bit like Old Montreal but with a New England style.

Andrew: OK. Very cool.

Harp: Mmhmm. And it’s lobster season, so that was wonderful.

Andrew: Oh, yeah. They’re big on seafood there, right?

Harp: Yup. Exactly.

Andrew: Cool. Cool. So today, we are going to do a Chatterbox episode, and in this kind of episode, we just have a conversation. And we talk about things that are interesting to us, current events, or Canadian culture. And today, we are going to chat about what?

Harp: We’re gonna talk about reading and books. We’re gonna start with talking about kind of how we read and where we read. And then we’re gonna talk about some of the books that we had to read.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

What’s your favourite comfort food – something you like to eat when you don’t feel well or when you feel a little down? In this Simplified Speech episode, Harp and Andrew have a discussion about a classic comfort food: soup!

Join them as they chat all about this versatile food enjoyed by people all over the world.

Expressions included in the Learning Materials:

* To go by something

* To be in for a treat

* Out of the blue

* To see where someone is coming from

* The sniffles

* Go-to

* To feel like home

* Comfort food

* To make something from scratch

* A touch

* To count

 

Andrew:

It is a sign of a good chef if they can make a good soup.

Harp:

Yup. Because it’s so simple, but it’s so hard to get it right.

Andrew:

And you have to have a lot of patience when you’re making soup. If you make soup from scratch, from the very start, you need to boil bones from an animal to make your broth, right? And this takes a long time. You can boil these things all day long.

Harp:

Yup. It requires patience and time. And it always requires that little touch, you know? Like, I can make an OK soup, but to make a delicious soup? I find it’s really hard.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

In every episode, we encourage you to send us messages with any questions you might have about life in Canada or the English language. We’ve received lots of great questions, so in this episode, Harp and Andrew dive into the Culips mailbox to respond to some of your messages!

Expressions from this episode included in the Learning Materials:

* To have all your bases covered

* A buffet-style party

* It’s just a matter of doing something

* Funner

* Camera-shy

* A learning curve

* FAQ

* A working holiday visa

* To dodge a bullet

Sample transcript:

Andrew: So, Harp, how’s it going? What’s new with you?

Harp: It’s pretty good. I had a very, very busy weekend. I hosted a dinner party slash birthday party for a really good friend. And it was pretty exhausting because I had to cook dinner for 22 people.

Andrew: Wow. Twenty-two people? Harp: Yup.

Andrew: And you hosted them all in your apartment?

Harp: Yup.

Andrew: Wow! That is a lot of work.

Harp: Yeah. So obviously, I don’t have an apartment big enough to seat 22 people. So, we did kind of a buffet style. I did Mexican taco night. So, it was pretty cool.

Andrew: That sounds really good.

Harp: Yup. It was pretty good. Thank God one of my best friends is a chef, so he helped me out a lot. I’ll be honest.

Andrew: Yeah. Well, you need it when you have that many people over.

Harp: Yup.

Andrew: Were you able to hang out with your guests and chat with them a bit?

Harp: Yes. I was. ’Cause that’s the good thing about tacos, is that you can do most of the prep before, so when people are there, it’s just a matter of quickly reheating things.

Andrew: For sure. Very cool.

Harp: Yes. So should we get started with today’s episode?

Andrew: Yeah. Today, we have a Chatterbox episode. And this is where we discuss current events or interesting things. We just chat.

Harp: Yup. And today we’re doing a very interesting episode that we’ve called The Culips mailbox.

Andrew: Yeah. So, you know how every episode, we encourage you to send us emails and messages on Facebook? Well, a lot of you have. And we are going to respond to some of these messages in this podcast.

Harp: Yes. I think we should get started. So the first question is from Ji Sun in Korea. And she asked us, “I was just awarded a working holiday visa, which will allow me to work in Canada for a year. I want to go to either Vancouver or Calgary. Which city do you recommend?” Oh, good question, Ji Sun. What do you think, Andrew?

Andrew: Well, this… You know, I’m a person that can talk about this with some authority ’cause I’ve lived in Vancouver and in Calgary. But I think it depends on what your goals are, right? Do you wanna come to work and just to experience living abroad? Or do you really, really wanna learn English? Because I think if you’re from Korea, and you go to Vancouver, you will probably just end up hanging with a lot of Koreans and speaking a lot of Korean. But if you go to Calgary, you might, you know, speak a little more English.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

How do you style your hair? Today’s Simplified Speech episode is all about haircuts. Join Harp and Andrew as they discuss their own worst haircuts ever and talk about some trendy hairstyles that can be seen in Canada right now!

Expressions included in the Learning Materials:

* I would say

* Causative verbs

* To push

* Hairstyles

* Epic

* Right on

Sample transcript

Andrew: Mmhmm. I get a haircut maybe once every 2 months.

Harp: You know, I don’t really like getting my hair cut because I just like longer hair, and I feel that I was never able to find a good hair stylist. So I sometimes cut my hair only once a year.

Andrew: Mmhmm. This is not unusual for people that have longer hair, though.

Harp: Yeah. That’s true. And I never actually had my first haircut until I was 12 years old.

Andrew: 12 years old? Really?

Harp: Mmhmm. I had very, very long hair when I was young.

Andrew: Wow. Was this something that your family wanted you to have, or was this a personal decision?

Harp: Oh, no. It was very much from my family. It’s very traditional to just have long hair in India, so my parents never cut my hair, and I always had a very long braid. And when I was young, like, maybe in grade 3, I remember the school pictures where I had two braids that kind of twisted up to my ear, and then my mom put ribbons – so a little bit like Princess Leia from Star Wars.

Andrew: Yeah.

Harp: It was very unfashionable, but it worked for me.

Andrew: That sounds cool. The Princess Leia haircut is pretty neat.

Harp: Yeah. So my first haircut was very late, but I don’t know… Most people, I think, cut their hair when they’re 2 or 3 for the first time?

Andrew: Yeah. It’s always funny. You know, these days a lot of my friends are starting to have kids, and so these kids have to go get their hair cut for the very first time. And it can be a traumatic experience for a little kid.

Harp: Then I think there are some hairdressers that specialize in kids’ haircuts because they kind of distract the kids, and they make it a very gentle experience.

Andrew: Mmhmm. Because there’s a lot of scary stuff going on. You’ve got scissors and buzzers and all of these sharp materials, so I can imagine it being a scary experience.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast

Everyone has a bad habit or two. And despite how unhealthy or annoying bad habits are, they can be hard to break. In this Chatterbox episode, Harp and Andrew talk all about bad habits. Join them for their conversation about the bad habits they had when they were kids and some of the habits they still struggle with as adults.

Expressions included in the Learning Materials

* A bad habit

* Stoked

* To kick it

* To pick up after yourself

* Fair enough

* To be verbing away

* Absent-minded

* Grouchy

* Hangry

* To pick on someone

* To snowball

* All part of something

Sample transcript

Harp: Yes. So today we’re gonna bring you a Chatterbox episode, and that’s where we chat. We pick a topic, and we talk about it, basically. So today, we’re gonna talk about something pretty interesting.

Andrew: Yeah. Bad habits.

Harp: Yes. Bad habits. But I don’t have any, remember, Andrew. I’m perfect, so …

Andrew: Yeah. So this is gonna be a very short episode because Harp has no bad habits to talk about.

Harp: I’m just joking.

Andrew: Well luckily, I have a lot of bad habits, so I’ll make up for your lack.

Harp: All right, so we’re gonna break it down into talking about some of the common bad habits that kids have. Then we’re gonna talk about some of our bad habits that we had as kids.

Andrew: And then we’re going to talk about bad habits that adults have.

Harp: Yes.

Andrew: And then we’ll talk about some of the bad habits we have now that we’d like to get rid of.

Harp: Yes. So let’s get started.

Andrew: Sure. So today, we’re talking about bad habits. And Harp, how would you define a bad habit?

Harp: A bad habit is basically something that someone does often, and they usually do it without thinking, and it’s bad because it’s not the proper behaviour.

Andrew: Mmhmm. So it’s just a repeated action that you do, and it feels natural to do, but it has a negative consequence, right? It affects somebody negatively.

Audio/Learning Materials: Culips English Learning Podcast