[963] Emma Camara Ortega and I worked together as English teachers years ago, but since then Emma has become a licensed counsellor and therapist - helping people with their mental health. In this episode, Emma talks to me about what is involved in counselling, and we discuss some everyday habits to promote good mental health. This should be full of interesting insights and helpful tips for mental wellbeing, which is so vital for our general lives but also to help us learn as effectively as possible. Full transcript and vocabulary list available.

Get the PDF transcript & word list 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Talking-Therapy-Mental-Health-Counselling-with-Emma-Camara-Ortega-963.pdf

Episode page on my website 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/11/24/talking-therapy-mental-health-counselling-with-emma-camara-ortega-963/

LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

Emma Camara Ortega in the UK Counselling Directory 👉 https://www.counselling-directory.org.uk/counsellors/emma-camara-ortega

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[962] Time for another short story on LEP. This one is about a man who has a wondrous experience as a child, which then haunts him for the rest of his adult life. Listen as I read the story to you, and then ramble about its meaning, interpretations and how it evoked some strong memories and strange feelings in me. Then there is a vocabulary review which will continue in an upcoming premium series.

Get the episode PDF 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/The-Door-in-the-Wall-Learn-English-with-a-Short-Story-962.pdf

Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/11/17/the-door-in-the-wall-learn-english-with-a-short-story-962/

LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

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[961] Emma Jakobi is the host of MmmEnglish on YouTube, and now the online community Hey Lady! In this episode Emma joins me for a chat about living on the remote Western coast of Australia, "blowing up" on YouTube, her decision to step away from MmmEnglish to focus on Hey Lady! Also, her thoughts on the rise of AI, and some fun facts about singing in the shower, her vintage Lexus car and her phobias of public speaking (surprising) and leeches (understandable). Full transcript available.

Get the episode transcript 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/11/Emma-from-MmmEnglish-and-Hey-Lady-961-Transcript-1.pdf

Episode page on my website 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/11/10/emma-from-mmmenglish-and-hey-lady-961/

Emma's Instagram 👉 https://www.instagram.com/mmmenglish_emma/

Hey Lady! website 👉 https://www.heylady.io/join

Hey Lady! IG 👉 https://www.instagram.com/hey_lady_community/

Hey Lady! YT 👉 https://www.youtube.com/@heyladyenglish

MmmEnglish on YouTube 👉  @mmmEnglish_Emma 

LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

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A particularly useful and interesting episode for you today - a conversation about English words which are very similar, but crucially, not the same. My guest Eli Burnstein is the author of “Dictionary of Fine Distinctions” - a book which aims to bring clarity to English words. Expect a funny discussion about subtle shades of meaning between words like poison & venom, accuracy & precision, envy & jealousy and many others. Eli is Canadian, now living in London and so he also shares some key features of Canadian English. 

📄 Get the PDF transcript https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Fine-Distinctions-Subtle-Shades-of-Meaning-with-Eli-Burnstein-960.pdf

🔗 Episode page on my website https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/11/03/fine-distinctions-subtle-shades-of-meaning-with-eli-burnstein-960/

🏆 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

📗 Get the book in the UK https://www.waterstones.com/book/dictionary-of-fine-distinctions/eli-burnstein/9781805227229

📘 Buy the book from Profile Books https://profilebooks.com/work/dictionary-of-fine-distinctions/

📙 Also available on Amazon https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dictionary-Fine-Distinctions-Nuances-Niceties/dp/180522722X/

🧔‍♂️ https://www.eliburnstein.com/

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People keep asking me in comments, "How can I learn English with your podcast?" so in this episode I am answering that question as simply, directly and efficiently as possible. Expect advice about improving your English across the 4 skills of listening, reading, speaking and writing, and the language systems of grammar, vocabulary, pronunciation and discourse management. PDF available.

📄 Get the PDF here 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/How-to-learn-English-with-my-podcast-959.pdf

🔗 Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/10/27/how-to-learn-english-with-my-podcast-959/

🏆 Sign up to LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sign up to LEP Premium here 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

If you have ever wondered what happens in premium episodes, this episode will show you. I'll play you some clips from the latest series (P71) including some vocabulary explanations, memory quiz questions, pronunciation practice and discussion questions for speaking practice. For the rest of the series, and all the other episodes of LEP Premium (now over 250, each with PDF worksheets and video versions) sign up and become a Premium LEPster today 🏆 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

📄 Get the episode PDF 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/A-Free-Sample-of-LEP-Premium-Series-71-_-Vocabulary-Pronunciation-958.pdf

🔗 Website page for this episode 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/10/20/a-free-sample-of-lep-premium-series-71-vocabulary-pronunciation-958/

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How many words are there in English? How many do you really need to know? And how many words have I spoken on this podcast? 🧐 Also, what is shadowing, and how should you do it? Can you do episodes about different English accents? What are your top 10 countries for this podcast? In this episode of Luke’s English Podcast, I answer listener questions about vocabulary size, English accents, the shadowing technique and more. PDF available with transcript and vocabulary list.

📄 Get the PDF with transcript and vocab list 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/More-Questions-of-English-Listener-Comments-_-Bits-Bobs-5-957.pdf

🔗 Episode page on my website 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/10/13/more-questions-of-english-listener-comments-bits-bobs-5-957/

🏆 Sign up to LEP Premium for more lessons on vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

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My brother James joins me again on the podcast for a rambling chat about diverse topics such as: trousers 👖 sandwiches 🥪 gangster films 🍿 the work of Edgar Allan Poe 📖 vinyl and cassettes 🎵 memories of living together 🎮 annoying behaviour 😤 and English words and grammar that irritate people 😠 plus James has a new vinyl EP out now on Ooz records. Transcript available 📄.

🎧 Get OOZ004 - James' new vinyl EP 👉 https://oozrecords.bandcamp.com/album/ooz004

📄 Get the PDF transcript 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Thompson-Originals-A-Chat-with-My-Brother-956-TRANSCRIPT.pdf

🔗 Episode page on my website 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/10/06/thompson-originals-a-chat-with-my-brother-956/

🏆 Sign up to LEP Premium for extra episodes about vocab, grammar, pronunciation 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

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In episode 949 I did an online test which claimed to be for C1 level, but let's be honest - it was more like an intermediate level, the questions were rubbish and it was ultimately a useless scam. This time I'm taking a proper C1 English test - the Use of English section from a Cambridge CAE exam. Let's see what is required to pass this, and what bits of English you can learn from it.

📄 Get the PDF 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Lets-take-a-REAL-C1-English-Test-CAE-Use-of-English-955.pdf

🔗 Website page for this episode 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/09/29/lets-take-a-real-c1-english-test-cae-use-of-english-955/

🏆 LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

🎧 Listen to my podcast in an app on your phone 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/links

What is the pass mark for this CAE test?

I forgot to add that the pass mark is 60% for this test, which means you must get a minimum of about 22/36 in the Use of English section (that's 14 lost points). Could you do it? Bear in mind that this is only a part of the whole test, and you'd need to get at least 60% across all 4 sections (also including listening, writing and speaking).

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The Pod-Pals are back on the podcast for another catching up session! Recorded just after the summer holidays, there is talk of Paul's hatred of the beach 🏖️, the English tradition of building epic sandcastles 🏰, other famous people with our names (including an "evil" teacherluke 👿) and what AI gets completely wrong about us 🤦. PDF transcript available. (a.k.a Catching Up with Amber & Paul #15)

📄 Get the PDF transcript 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/09/Transcript-Holiday-Hell-Serious-Sandcastles-AI-Inbreeding-with-Amber-Paul-954-2.pdf

🔗 Episode page 👉 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2025/09/22/holiday-hell-serious-sandcastles-ai-inbreeding-with-amber-paul-954/

🏆 Sign up to LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium

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