Unexpected English!

Transcription: Hey everybody, I was listening to a podcast, and I heard this. Let's listen: “They also have a lack of complex body parts, which allows them to be able to adapt more quickly.”

Okay now, why did that make me stop? Well you may have noticed that the person was not asking a question, but their voice went up at the end, making it sound like a question. “They also have a lack of complex body parts...”

What's up with that?! Well, it is UP. In fact, it's called Uptalk. That's when people's voices go up at the end, even though they're not asking a question. So when I heard this, I thought, hmm, I wonder if my listeners have ever heard it, or noticed it, or thought about it, so I just thought I would share that example. Let's listen again: “They also have a lack of complex body parts, which allows them to be able to adapt more quickly.”

Okay now, I'll say the same thing. Here we go. Okay. "They also have a lack of complex body parts, which allows them to adapt more quickly." (applause) Right, right. Okay, thank you, thank you. The difference is, it was not a question. All right, so there it is. You've heard your examples of Upspeak or Uptalk, and I wanted to share them with you because it is fairly common. And now that you've heard it, you might notice it more and more.

[Satire:] “Uptalk is, like, super annoying if you're under the age of 40, though it's probably not that big of a deal to you. Until an older family member or colleague, tells you about this super irritating habit of young people, where every sentence ends like it's a question?”

On the other hand, ...on the other hand, it can also be explained as having a purpose, of course, because everything supposedly has a purpose, right? And the purpose of Uptalk could be, for one thing, just to sound more invitational and less aggressive, less assertive. So, if I say something, and my voice goes up a little bit. So, to be a little friendlier, a little friendlier tone, for one thing. O  as a kind of unconscious gambit, that says, “I’m not done talking yet. Right, so there's more to come.” And is there a third reason for uptalk? Uhhh.. boh [great Italian word] I dunno. Wait. Oh wait, now I remember the third reason that people could be using Uptalk. And that is to check for comprehension, check for understanding from the person I'm speaking to. In a face to face conversation, if my voice goes up a little bit. I'm looking for clues from you, that you're following what I'm saying. So that could be another legitimate reason that people use Uptalk.

---> "Body parts? Adapt more quickly” Body parts? Adapt more quickly?" <--

Okay, that was it. That was the “uptalking” episode. I hope you liked it, and we'll catch you next time. Ciao ciao!

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*** Hi everybody in this episode of Unexpected English we visit the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society. Say that again: the San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society. Yeah,  and I'll tell you my favorite part of this interview. Um, when  I'm talking to the lady, I repeat that name (the name of the society) because I repeat things during the interview to help you understand. And so, I repeat that and then I say "And it's a show" after she tells me it's a show and and at this point she must think I'm a little stupid. Because, you listen, and she says yes it's a SHOW, we're having a SHOW. OK that's it that's my introduction. Here we go!

*** OK here we are in Balboa Park at a special event and I thought I would interview somebody who could explain just what's happening. Hi, my name is Susan I am a volunteer with the Cactus and Succulent Society of San Diego. Today and yesterday we have our big annual show and sale. OK, hold up now, this is... what is the name of the society again? San Diego Cactus and Succulent Society. All right then today there is a show. Yes, this is the show, we have probably over 600 plants in the SHOW. They were judged yesterday evening and they all have their ribbons placed next to them. We have several that were trophy winners and they are up on the stage at the front of the room. Oh, oh so I can go and find first place and second place and third place. That is correct. And how many different categories of prizes or awards or ribbons are there? Well, there's three categories --- you get first prize second prize or third place OK? And it's blue ribbon, red ribbon or white ribbon. And if you get a ... if you are a special plant, then you get a plaque up on the stage. OK? OK, and how many people do you think ... ah, how many entries were there in this competition... it's kind of a competition, right? Yeah, well there’s probably over 600 plants in this room. So about 600 entries, and then there were how many winners? Oh, I have no idea. Any, any number of winners... you have to go and look and see the ribbons. And how many people you think will be visiting the show today? Really I don't know, but we had hundreds of people yesterday and probably about 500 today also. OK, fantastic! So we have a popular event here in Balboa Park and I hope you enjoyed the interview.

*** [outro] and then .... Auction sounds!

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[INTRO] Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of Unexpected English where today or right now in this episode -- which is episode 69 by the way if you're counting -- (yeah if you're not counting, well, who cares) but this is the episode 69 and we are taking you to beautiful Mission Bay San Diego for something called a sound bath! That's right, we're going to be having a sound bath together so get ready for that, OK? OK, I won't say anything else let's just go!

[INTERVIEW] So I'm here on North Cove Beach of Mission Bay here in beautiful San Diego and I am speaking with .... Lindsey Roche ... and I was walking down the beach and I saw Lindsey had these uhh... bowls arranged here in the sand. Could you tell us about that? So yeah so this is... what we're setting up for is a sound healing session. We have ... these are crystal sound healing bowls, so they're 99.9% pure quartz and the way that sound healing works is we're all made of water, right? 70% water, so the vibrations and the frequency of these bowls react with the water inside your body and work to relax you and slow down your mind, your mental state into, ideally, a (??) state. Ohhh, so I'm gonna get, like I'm gonna get so relaxed I’ll float away... or something. OK, now tell me again, so these bowls are made of... the colored bowls that you see are 99.9% pure quartz crystal. Quartz crystal, and we've got different size quartz crystal bowls arranged in the sand and I suppose they all vibrate at a different frequency. They certainly do, they are all correlated with the different chakras, so each note is a different note. We've got the red there is your root chakra which is a C note. Oh, we're talking about your chakras, you know, you people.. what you don't know about the chakras, well you'll have to look, you'll have to Google that. But before we go maybe we could get a sound... not a sound bath, but at least an idea of what we're talking about, these sounds, what they sound like, so... she’s getting the little mallets here and... turning off the background music so, even though it might be a little breezy, so I don't know how pure our sound is going to be, but we’ll get some sound off of this for sure, so..... [...vibrations....].................. I'm feeling relaxed already, I don't know about you out there, but I'm feeling it...... OK, so there you have it people, direct from Mission Bay in San Diego, you’ve just had your first sound bath. Thanks a lot, Lindsay. Thank you, have a beautiful day. You too, bye.

Hello, thanks for calling Unexpected English, who am I speaking with? Hi, this is Kat Mondu. Kat, Yes! Where are you calling from, Kat? I'm calling from Arkansas. Arkansas. OK. I'm not sure people know where, Arkansas, is geographically so could you tell us? It is kind of in the mid-south of the USA. In the middle of the south of the USA, with other states around you like.,,Like, Oklahoma, and Texas, Missouri. Okay, all right, I guess, if, anybody doesn't know, you can look at a map for, Arkansas, right? Right above Louisiana. Right above Louisiana. Wait a minute, I have a problem with Arkansas. Yeah, I'll tell you what my problem is. Could you spell that for us? Yes. ARKANSAS That’s Arkansas right? But then you have KANSAS, and that's Kansas! So how come you guys aren't ark-KANSAS? Well, because Kansas should really be kan-SAW! OK. All right, I'm glad we got that cleared up! So this is Kat calling from Arkansas which is nowhere near kan-SAW. All right. Well, so what should we know about the beautiful state of Arkansas? Arkansas is known as the natural state. And we boast over 50 state parks. OK, so because when you say natural I'm thinking, does that mean everybody walks around naked? No it doesn't mean that, right? No, not quite that natural. You can find that here! Lots of state parks. That means hills and ... do mountains there? We have mountains in the Ozarks. Oh good, I'm learning so much. This is good, because I've never been to Arkansas. I have to be honest it's not, it's not a place I've been to. But if I go there, well I guess I'm going for the nature, because it's the, nature state or the natural state, which is it? It's the natural state. The natural state, beautiful. And I always like to know if I go to some, some state if there's a, you know, like a typical dish or some kind of specialty or something that people like to eat there that you might not find other places. Well, Arkansas, is actually home of cheese dip. Cheese DIP? Yes, we invented it, or at least we claim it, and it was in Little Rock where it was invented, Oh, do you guys have, like, cheese dip competitions? Yes, we take it very seriously, I guess so! And what, what do people in Arkansas, dip into their cheese dip? Just about anything! Tortilla chips or pretzels, or fried pickles, even! Fried pickles! That's another thing that,  I don't know why I've never had a fried pickle. Are they good? They are delicious. Especially when dipped in a nice creamy cheese I suppose! Oh yes! Okay. Oh boy, well, I'm getting kind of hungry. But before we go, are there any unique expressions in Arkansas? I don't know that there are, but I'm always looking for some kind of language thing. Oh yes, let me give you a few. Oh my gosh you've got language things there, OK! Well, of course, I mean, if you’ve got, you got fried pickles in cheese dip, I guess you got everything yeah? So, okay, I'm ready. Just know if a southerner says, “Bless your heart!” that's not a good thing. If they say “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!” that IS a good thing. Okay. Bless your heart, kind of is used to ... shut somebody down, is that it? To say like, what does it really mean? Like, Oh, you poor soul! Oh, but that sounds, that sounds sympathetic. Not so much... Okay, and the other one sounded kind of semi-adult. What was that? It was, “Well butter my butt and call me a biscuit!” And that just means. Well, look who's here! Oh man, that's beautiful, that's a good one. Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! Yeah, that’s perfect. Is that right? Oh good, I did it okay! You did a great job. I’m so proud of myself. Okay, Kat, well thanks very much for your time this has been fun and very educational too. Well thank you for having me. This was very fun. FOLLOW!

***

Hey everybody! You'r listening to Unexpected English! This is episode 67 and I'm doing this episode for a special reason. That is that today I learned that the writer and poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti died, passed away. And that's OK! He was 101 years old! But it reminded me of his poetry, which I like, and I found a good one to read for you. And it's good because it's about another great poet: Allen Ginsberg. I'm sure you've heard of Allen Ginsberg. If you haven't heard about Lawrence Ferlinghetti, you might want to look for some of his poems. But Ferlinghetti wrote this poem for Ginsberg, who was dying at the time, and I thought it was appropriate. And it's quite a good poem,  so I decided to read it for you. I hope you enjoy it. Here we go!  

Allen Ginsberg is dying

It's in all the papers

It's on the evening news

A great poet is dying

But his voice

                     won't die

His voice is on the land

In Lower Manhattan

in his own bed

he is dying

There is nothing

to do about it

He is dying the death that everyone dies

He is dying the death of the poet

He has a telephone in his hand

and he calls everyone

from his bed in Lower Manhattan

All around the world

late at night

the telephone is ringing

This is Allen

                      the voice says

Allen Ginsberg calling

How many times have they heard it

over the long great years

He doesn't have to say Ginsberg

All around the world

in the world of poets

there is only one Allen

I wanted to tell you he says

He tells them what's happening

what's coming down

on him

Death the dark lover

going down on him

His voice goes by satellite

over the land

over the Sea of Japan

where he once stood naked

trident in hand

like a young Neptune

a young man with black beard

standing on a stone beach

It is hightide and the seabirds cry

The waves break over him now

and the seabirds cry

on the San Francisco waterfront

There is a high wind

There are great whitecaps

lashing the Embarcadero

Allen is on the telephone

His voice is on the waves

I am reading Greek poetry

The sea is in it

Horses weep in it

The horses of Achilles

weep in it

here by the sea

in San Francisco

where the waves weep

They make a sibilant sound

a sibylline sound

Allen

         they whisper

                             Allen

***

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Hey everybody, and welcome to another episode of Unexpected English, where I have, yes, something unexpected. Well, it's unexpected because this is the first telephone interview. That's right, I interviewed someone from Ecuador, who just called. right? So it's a new thing, I think it works. And if it does work, that means, that means you can call me too and I can interview you. I guess I don't know. Let's, let's not even wait around, let's just get right to the episode. Okay. Yeah, let's do that. Here we go.

***

Hello, thanks for calling Unexpected English. Who am I speaking with? You’re speaking with Joffre, it’s a pleasure, Louis. Joffe, where are you calling from? I'm calling far far away from you. I'm calling from Ecuador. It’ isn’t a food. No, although, that, okay, it makes me think of food so tell me: if I go to Ecuador, what is the one dish that I have to try? Yeah, okay. You will eat guinea pig. It's something crazy for many people around the world, but we eat here guinea pig. Yeah, what, what's it called, what's it called? It is called “cuy.”

Cuy! yeah I know. I've heard of that! Cuy is.. is that, but I mean, is it a typical plate, cuy? Yes, at least in the place where I live. It is common, many people enjoy eating cuy, like, each week, or maybe twice a week. Many people are eating cuy. Okay, so we have, we sit down to a nice dish of cuy. Well yeah, with, with some kind of beer. What's the best beer to have with cuy? Here it is called Pilsner. The most popular here it is called Pilsner. Oh Pilsner but pils... Pilsner is a style of beer, actually. Ah, isn't it?

Yeah, it is! Okay, so we've got the dish we've got the beer... Some potatoes, and potatoes yeah, okay, this is... Here we have many kinds of potatoes, like 1000s of potatoes, kinds of potatoes. A thousand varieties of potatoes, and each one is more delicious than the next one, probably, yeah? Yes yeah there's a different taste. Okay, tell me, what do people, what do Ecuadorians, what are they famous for... I mean what do people say about Ecuadorians? Oh, that's a tricky question. Ecuadorians, we like to cook, to make delicious food. And we have many places to go to visit. I believe the most famous place from Ecuador is called Galapagos. Oh yeah yeah that’s too famous, we know about, that we don't need tourism... Ok, yes, like people here... we are relaxed. We aren't stressed about work.

So it's a good place to relax. It's a good place to eat cuy. Exactly! And have a beer. Let me think, the last thing.... Oh, I know, the last thing is to tell people about your podcast, because you have a podcast, right? Yes, yes. I have a podcast to help people who are learning Spanish and learning English. And we are a group, a group of friends that we have been learning Spanish and English for a while, and we decided to have a podcast to help other people. Okay, what's the...what's the name. It's called “amigos, learning languages.”

Okay, people so there it is, if you speak Spanish, or if you speak English and want to learn Spanish... because your podcast is kind of Spanglish, right? You do both languages? Yes it is, Spanglish because I'm trying to relate what we already know in Spanish, and what we already know in English, to try to make it easier for people to learn English and Spanish relating those languages.

All right, so everybody who loves Unexpected English. I know they love to learn languages. So maybe they want to check out your podcast which is called... “Amigos Learning Languages” “Amigos learning languages!”...there you go. All right, everybody, I think you've got it. You've heard we've heard from from Joffre in Ecuador, and that's it. Thanks for your time, Joffre. It was a pleasure, Louis . Okay. Have a good day. You too. Thanks. Bye Bye

***

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***

So, here we are at Balboa Park and I thought I would interview somebody who just stepped off of a .... what? Bird? Bird cycle? What is it, a bird cycle? Scooter. Oh, a scooter! A scooter, is this the first first time you've ever been on a scooter? First time I’ve ever been in it. (We're not from here!) We're from Texas, Houston Texas. OK, so we’ve got some visitors from Houston Texas and she just tried out a scooter (scooter!) and how was that experience? It was... it was kinda scary... for a 60 year old woman (laughs) Yeah, it was scary, I am not young no more!

OK she’s not so young but she's brave enough to get on the scooter! Is that the craziest thing you've ever done that you can tell us about? No... I used to be ... when I was in my 30s, my early 30s, I used to be a bull rider (music) Excuse me, excuse me. Hold up, my listeners need to process that. Could you repeat that again? Uhh, in my late 30s , I was uhh... early 30s I was a bull rider (music) My father was a bull rider.And what does that mean exactly “bull rider.” Uhhh... Is that like a “bullshit artist?” (laughter) She's one of those too! I'm sorry, this is supposed to be a clean podcast... I'll... I’ll delete that out.

It was uhh there were... we had miniature bulls ... it was .. it was in a.. it was called uhh, Mexican bull... where they have “charreadas” Uh-huh. You know, “jaripeos” ... right ... and my dad used to do it, so I learned it from them. I liked it! And my brother used to do it, but I liked it more than my brother did. OK, so we're talking to a lady who used to ride bulls in “charreadas” ... and you can Google that word if you like it it's kind a like a Mexican ... Mexican bull... bull thing, horse riding, this and that. Yeah. So I guess then the scooter was no big deal. No, it was getting back on track, that was it, OK, so she's back in form and we're back live from Balboa Park. I hope to catch you again next time. Bye! (OUTRO) Thanks for listening: please tell your friends: word of mouth is the only way to encourage me to do future episodes!

***

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+++++

Hi everybody! Welcome back to another episode of Unexpected English! Unexpected... unexpectedly... this is unexpected because I did not expect to be recording an episode where I talk about the attack on democracy in my country. But I am recording this episode one day after that happened. One day after the so-called president incited his cult followers by again feeding them lies that he "won" the election. How pathetic is that? How pathological is that? But there are people who believe lies, I guess, if you repeat them often enough. And he has been repeating that lie and thousands of other lies his entire term in office. Well, no reason to talk about it I guess. If if anyone ever spoke with me, you know that I have said from the beginning the man is incapable and unfit: unfit mentally, unfit morally, unfit in every way. And this is the perfect conclusion to his four years of chaos. In fact there are, as I record this, 13 days left in his presidency and there is serious talk of invoking the 25th amendment. The 25th amendment (to the Constitution) says if the president is incapable of carrying out his duties, which of course he has been from the beginning, but in this case trying to overturn democracy and ignore the reality of an election that he lost! And inciting ... an attack on the institutions of this country: clearly that makes him unfit. But of course, I'm sure nothing will happen. That is to say, it's unlikely he will be removed from office and instead we will live counting down these final 13 days, hoping that he does not do anything crazier than what he has done. And it is crazy. it's crazy! Right now as I speak Trump is not allowed to post on Facebook. They took away his Facebook privileges but they didn't take away the codes to the nuclear weapons, you know? He could to destroy the planet, but he can't post on Facebook! So yeah, that's where we are right now. So welcome to 2021. Welcome to 2021. Oh, a little bit of news... if you listened to the last episode and I said my brother was foolishly flying across the country to visit my elderly mother. Well the good news is that did not happen because at the last minute my niece, my brother's daughter, tested positive for Covid, so they realized, finally, Uh-oh! Maybe not a good idea! So that trip didn't happen. So that's a good thing. What else do I have to report? Here in San Diego, as you know perhaps, California has zero emergency hospital beds available because of the pandemic. And to bring it back to Trump, yes he is responsible, his government is responsible... oh God! Well, let that go... let it go for now. I just wanted to give you an update. I'm staying safe at home. I hope you're staying safe at home and I hope to bring you maybe a cheerier episode, an episode was a little more fun next time around. But for now I guess that's it. Thanks for listening and we’ll catch you next time. Ciao ciao.

***

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**** Happy Holidays! ***

Unexpected English has NO advertising or sponsors, and I am not looking for students.  I do it for fun, and hope you enjoy it. If you do, please help spread the word. Follow on Spotify and Instagram, and tell your friends! Thanks!

[EP 62] This was supposed to be a TEST, *not* a podcast episode! This episode may be difficult to understand: I rant like a crazy conspiracy nut, with no thought of being understood. Need help? USE THE TRANSCRIPT BELOW*

***

Hi everybody! It's me Louis with another episode of Unexpected English! It’s, well, this one is unexpected but it's not supposed to be an episode. In fact, you'll hear my wife say: Oh that's stupid, because, really, it was not planned as an episode! I'll tell you, I was testing an app that does speech to text, and I wanted to see if it worked, so I started acting like a crazy conspiracy person talking about, uhh, Alexa. I can't say... if I say Alexa... you know they won't run this podcast on A-M-A-Z-O-N so, I have to be careful. Anyway, it was just a crazy thing, but then I thought it was funny, So I thought, OK this is funny, and then my wife said, “no” and she heard it and she said “oh, it's kind of cute” so I thought ahh, what the heck, right? Uh, well, you decide, OK? You listen, you decide, here we go!

***

Okay, so you have an Alexa in your house and you don't care that it's listening to you all the time? No, I don't care. There's that I have no secrets that Alexa would be interested in. But your private life; you have a private life. What's a private life? The things you want to keep private? Well, and why would anybody care about my private life? Not that anybody would care, but do you want Amazon to know about your private life? What are they going to do with that information? Sell it to the Russians? I don't know. The Russians would also have no need for it. Oh, so you're not like a high level government employee. No, I'm not. But you're a voter, you're an American voter. I'm an American voter and if the Russians want to know I'm voting for Biden. I'm ridin' with Biden. They want to know because now they're gonna, like, interfere with your social and everything else and send you lots of misinformation because you're a Biden voter and they don't like that. Well, that may be true but I won't pay attention to their misinformation. Oh yes, you will, you'll be manipulated! Social media manipulates people they don't even know! Oh, that's true, that happens. So maybe you want to rethink your Amazon acceptance. No, why? We just said why! Because the Russians are gonna send me memes and stupid information that is not true and I know it's not? You don't know it's not true because you'll... I do know it's not true. How do you know? Tell our fellow Americans how to tell the difference between a fake meme and a real meme. Well, if you... you can just go to Snopes.com and fact check anything. Snopes. How do you know that's not run by, you know, by anti-conspiracy, pro-pedophile, you know, overthrow the government. anti-Trump forces. That's just all crazy stuff. Oh, you call it crazy, we call it reality! Some people do call it reality, you're right. But I don't... I don't associate with those people. Yeah but, Alexa will associate you with those people because she's got your voice recordings! No, she won't associate me with them, because I'm not with them. I don't believe in them. Okay, go ahead, I guess this is a lost cause. She does not care about protecting herself from manipulation. Thanks everybody for listening. [That's not gonna be a podcast, that would be so stupid.] (pause) I just want to see if it worked. There you go. So look at this now. Scroll up and look and see, is it accurate? (unintelligible) Still recording? Stop. Stop. Stop! Stop!!! What the hell, where's the stop button? This will be a good podcast now because I can't find the frickin' stop button. Alright, there's a stop button here somewhere. Where are... where are...come on. Come on, stop! That's not it. That's not it. Oh there it is okay. Boom!

***

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