Teacher Joseph Podcast

English learning phrase of the day: to take its toll, Britain's obesity crisis, Very large croissants and Britain's Airports E-Gates crash. The idiom "to take its toll" means to be damaging or harmful, cause loss or destruction. It is often used to describe the negative effects of something over time, such as the civil war taking its toll on both sides. The phrase is derived from the taking of toll, a tribute or tax, to exacting other costs. It can also be used to describe the negative effects of stress on people, such as the constant stress taking its toll on emergency room workers.

A reading of a news report, when the Eurotunnel was officially opened.

To have no qualms, Scotland gets a new First Minister who says he wants to eliminate child poverty. My thoughts on Miss World and beauty contests. Extract Today's phrase is “to have no qualms” and if you have no qualms about doing something, it means you're not worried that it may be wrong in some way. You have no hesitations, apprehensions, uneasiness or moral difficulty with the action. For example. if you recommend a certain way of doing something you can say, I have no qualms with this. It means I don't have any problems with it. I don't have any issues with that. Now, we only ever use this in the negative. Okay, you can’t say I have qualms with something. Maybe in Old English, that was the case, but we don't use that now. Let's look at some examples. So, the doctor is low on resources and he has to decide which patients he's going to treat. Is it going to be the one with cancer first? Or maybe the one with the flu. And the doctor might say, I have no qualms about my decision. And in the past tense he can say I had no qualms. Likewise a business owner, who's going to fire his employees during a tough economic time. He might say I have no qualms about downsizing the company. In the past, I had no qualms or maybe even I will have no qualms in the future. Um, imagine that there's a breakup between two of your friends. Uh, maybe a relationship coming to an end. You might hear one of them saying I have no qualms about this. No qualms about this coming to an end. Uh, another example, Someone who jumps out of aeroplanes and hopes his parachute will open in mid air, he might say, I have no qualms about risking my life. And also, with speaking your mind, Uh, if you're quite a direct person you can say I have no qualms about telling people how I feel. Now, this is very, very common and I use this a lot, I have no qualms about doing particular things. Telling people what I think of them I have no qualms. It doesn't mean being insensitive. It just indicates a lack of hesitation. Uh, getting things done. And that's really, really important. Especially in a culture like here where everyone kind of dances around each other being very polite. Sometimes you just have to say things in order for things to change. So, yeah, to have no qualms about doing something means to do something without a problem or hesitation very common, even in Business English.

Extract:

Hello, everyone, and welcome again to another Teacher Joseph podcast.

Today, the phrase we have is “to be fed up”. To be fed up, and it basically means to be bored or to be mentally tired of a particular situation. Now, it can also mean a little bit depressed.

So for example, you might hear your friends say:

Oh, I'm really fed up of this job, I've been doing it now for 10 years.

I'm fed up of my boss's behaviour. He always acts inappropriately.

Today, I feel really fed up. It’s wet outside and I don't have very much to do.

To be fed up. A synonym of bored or perhaps even to be depressed.

Roberto’s Story of Learning

Roberto, a young man, sought my assistance with a persistent issue: retaining English knowledge. He expressed this concern in Spanish, saying truculently,

“I can’t seem to retain anything related to English.”

As we conversed, it became evident that Roberto held a high-level managerial position and led a generally content life. In his 30s, married, and with two children, he insisted that he had no time for learning. However, my experience has taught me that when people claim they lack time, it often reflects a lack of willingness rather than genuine time constraints. If it was a priority, he would get it done.

Roberto presented a series of arguments and tasks to convince both of us that he truly had no time. He proudly reiterated,

“I have no time.”

I challenged him, saying,

“You sound conflicted. If time is genuinely scarce, why seek help? I am not in the business of selling time, I teach English.” This unexpected question left Roberto momentarily silent. He then confessed,

“I want to learn—I’ve been trying for 10 years.”

I responded,

“Being here is a positive step, but unless you can carve out time and commit to speaking in English, progress will remain elusive.” Despite my suggestions, each one was swiftly dismissed in Spanish:

“Listen to English podcasts during your commute.”

Roberto: “No, that’s my time to call my mother.”

“How about during your lunch break?”

Roberto: “I need to meet my wife; we usually have lunch together since we work in the same building.”

“Can you make any changes?”

Roberto: “No.”

Undeterred, I continued speaking in English, and he understood every word. Yet, he persisted in responding in Spanish. Curiously, I asked,

“Why do you want to learn?”

His reply: “Because it sounds good, and it could enhance my job prospects—I’ve always loved English.”

Roberto’s case highlights the delicate balance between desire and practical constraints. As we explored solutions, I thought perhaps he’d find a way to unlock the time he claims not to have. 🌟_________________________________________________

Now, we spoke the other day about what's the difference between English teaching and English coaching and I think, This essay really helps us to understand the difference because in English teaching, Uh, an English teacher, wouldn't really have known how to handle Roberto.They simply would have said,

“Okay, well you’re here now, here's grammar. Let's practice”.

But an English coach is exploring the problem with Roberto to see how he can make some time to learn. Now, as I was saying the other day, English teaching and English coaching has up until now been the same thing because teachers, who care, are always going to be exploring with you, your reasons for learning, how you learn…. just to see if you can do it better, to meet your own ambitions and that's a very different thing from just throwing grammar at you.

from the link above.

News Headlines:

Sadiq Khan wins the London Mayoral Elections,

Prince Andrew may get evicted,

Joanna Lumley will announce Britain's Eurovision Scores.

Shoplifters to be banned from stores.

Frankie Valli gets a place on the Hollywood Walk of Fame

Music: The Epic 2 by Rafael Krux

Link: https://filmmusic.io/song/5384-the-epic-2-

License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Music promoted on https://www.chosic.com/free-music/all/

Extract:

Today. I want to explore with you the difference between face-to-face classroom lessons and e-learning lessons on the internet. I've done both and there's a very real difference. And if you're someone who hasn't had an online lesson before or you're just not sure how they work, we're going to be looking at that today.

In a traditional English class, what you're getting is really well documented in advance. Not only by the course details but also because that way of educating people has been around for centuries. The idea of the teacher with students and imparting information has been the way of educating people all over the world for thousands upon thousands of years. That means that it's set in stone as we say in English, it's something which is very difficult to change. Newer countries in the world like America slowly are beginning to embrace change. They got these old systems from us and they realised that you know, they could be amended, adapted and that we could move on from them and that probably part of the reason why we now have e-learning because America Uh, once the internet came, I think has really led the way in developing platforms, like, Zoom Skype. Uh, individual lesson platforms which now are part of our everyday lives.

A teacher can become like a mentor. Where they hold you accountable. And that's where the next thing comes in that I want to tell you about and this is something kind of new that's appearing on the horizon, and that is English Coaches. Now, you've heard of lifestyle coaches. People who get you up in the morning. Get you meeting your targets. It's very much a fashionable thing. Um, these days we also have English coaches. Now, there's no clear distinction between who is a teacher and who is a coach, but, you’ll know them, if you find them. Because coaches will be more interested in your long-term goals. They'll be asking you what you're trying to meet… with the English, you're learning why exactly, you are learning that particular thing, why exactly, you're reading that particular book. Where exactly you're trying to get to… English coaching is something that really is huge and it's something that I'll be moving into more and more. Because in the past, of course, up until fairly recently, we've only had Teachers. Teachers, people who give you grammar because you pay the money, the teacher in the classroom, but it's evolving now, And what's coming is some kind of life coach specialising in languages.

And that probably is going to be the future for a lot of teachers and I think we're beginning to see that now in one-to-one lessons. More and more teachers, especially older ones are beginning to realise that this isn't just all about grammar. This is about you. This is about the person who's on the system sitting in front of you, who somewhere is a real live person and how can you help that person reach their goals. How can you Empower them how can you give them what they want in a way that moves them on to the next level.

That's that's really what's coming out of all of this. And already I'm seeing English coaches appearing on the internet, but don't misunderstand me because it seems to me that there's also another type of English coach In the same way, as there's a football coach.

So there are those as well. But I think the English coaches I'm talking about are more like mentors. They are people who really care about where you are going.

Extract: Well, there's a story in one our newspapers today. This is from the Daily Mirror and it's saying that pints of wine will be on sale from this coming Autumn. Now, you may remember a few months ago, I told you about this….that pint size glasses and bottles of wine were to be made available in the UK. And of course, as a nation, we don't really taste things. We just drink in volumes because we, we don't really have an appreciation you know…. we don't taste the wine and say “Oh delicious, dry, sweet,,,, would be nice with fish”. No…. we just drink to get drunk so it's no surprise then that we would want wine by the pint rather than appreciating the delicacy and beauty of the drink. So we're going to go through this story and we'll be talking about it as we go.

Today's phrase is to be rigged. Now when something is rigged, it is believed that it's operated using deceit or some kind of malicious behaviour to promote a desired outcome. Now, let me just give you some examples to show you what I mean: So, if we say, for example, We had an election today to vote for our Union leader but I honestly believe the election is rigged. The job vacancy has been advertised in the newspaper but I believe it's been rigged. We all know who's going to win. The football match was definitely rigged. I don't think the football players were playing in their usual way today. The competition to win a holiday in the local newspaper has been won by an employee of that newspaper. That was definitely rigged. So it says here, TV jobs at the BBC have been rigged. Now this isn't new, there's always been accusations against the BBC that women are paid less than men. I think that the BBC is such an old establishment that it's sometimes unaware of some of its practices. Despite evolving and changing there’s still accusations that the way it operates is sometimes rigged in favour of particular people based upon gender or cost cutting and of course once there's one accusation usually that prompts many others. So the headline says, “TV jobs at the BBC. Rigged”. So let's read through this, it says: “ Female BBC journalists have begun legal action against the broadcaster claiming a job application process was rigged”.

Beltane, a Celtic Scottish/Irish Festival on 1st May.

To Give the Heads Up, May Day, Maypole celebrations and the British Government sends an illegal immigrant to Rwanda.