Unexpected English!

(EP 51) This is a social-distancing, non-interview episode:  it features oral practice of five irregular verbs. Are you ready?

(EP 50) Listen to real American English! Improve your listening skills with another Unexpected English interview episode, complete with transcription to help you! I apologize for the sound quality in some sections: it was a windy day at the dog park! See links at the bottom of the transcription for  more. Spoken intro... and then... [Transcript] OK so here we are at the dog park and I found a young man here who volunteered to be interviewed. What's your name and how old are you? Hi, my name is Adrian and I'm 12 years old. Twelve years old, what grade are you in? I'm in 7th grade. Seventh grade... and what's your favorite class at school? My favorite class is Math because I love decimals and I also love geometry. Oh cool, and what other subjects do you have? I have a model building class and I have a PE class... Hold up, let me ask you a question: a model building class: what is that? Umm, so basically, you buy a model from the store and it's like a plastic model and you can glue the pieces together and it builds a model. So, like, it could be... like I built a Skyline GTR-R34. Wait, wait, hold it a minute! You built a what? And what is that? I built a Skyline GTR-R34. Is that a car? Yes. Ok I guessed it! It was a car, I'm good! It was a car, ok good! And, umm, it can’t... it's not in America and it's only in Japan. But I love the car because it's in the Fast and the Furious. Because it's a what? It's in the Fast and the Furious. Fast.. The fast and the furious..  it's a movie, alright, because I don’t, I don't know ... and what was that movie about? It's about cars basically racing, people racing each other. So I'm guessing that's like your favorite movie. Yes. OK so, we've got your favorite class, we got your favorite movie ... and what about your favorite food? My favorite food is probably pizza. Pizza, yeah pizza is everybody's favorite food, I think that's true. Anything else you want to tell anybody before we go? Oh my favorite color is pink because it stands up for breast cancer. Oh, that's fantastic, pink for breast cancer! OK thanks very much. Again we were talking to... Adrian Jones. Adrian, here in San Diego at the dog park and we hope you enjoy this podcast, and could understand it, and we hope you join us again next time! Bye! (outro music from fast and furious) *** Thats it! Please, if you like the show, please support my efforts by telling your friends and sharing this link --> https://linktr.ee/unexpectedenglish Follow on Spotify, message me on Instagram so I know you are listening, and leave a good review on Apple Podcasts This is a non-commercial project, so thank you for your support!

(EP 49) Special episode of Unexpected English.

 [Intro transcript]

Links: James Baldwin on the riots of 1968 

Gil Scott-Heron Winter in America 

Unexpected English: links

(EP 48) Unexpected English is a five minute podcast for English learners looking for something unusual and fun to practice their listening. As always, there is no English "lesson" - just an unexpected encounter with real life English. Sorry for the poor sound, but the interviews are recorded for you live on location without professional equipment. [Transcript]

(EP 47) Unexpected English is a five minute podcast for English learners looking for something unusual and fun to practice their listening. As always, there is no English "lesson" - just an unexpected encounter with real life English. This episode is not real. I'm just fixing a hole in the ocean, waiting for you to spread the word so that I know you enjoy the podcast! Please, if you like the show, please support my efforts by telling your friends and sharing this link --> https://linktr.ee/unexpectedenglish Follow on Spotify, message me on Instagram so I know you are listening, and leave a good review on Apple Podcasts This is a non-commercial project, so thank you for your support!

(EP 46) Season Four gets started with some awesome soul! Soul food, James Brown funk, ribs, and a fabulous, fun interview for the curious listener or English learner looking for some unique content.  Listen a few times [with and without the transcript below] to improve your comprehension. Let's do it!

TRANSCRIPT: OK, so here I am at an outdoor event where they have a lot of different stands including this one selling food. And I see the name of the stand is “In Your Mama’s Kitchen.” So could you tell us what your specialty is here at In Your Mama’s Kitchen? At In Your Mama’s Kitchen we have soul food that's not just good for the soul but it's good for the mind body and the spirit and stomach if you are hungry. If you are not, you can always take a plate to go. Soul food, soul food, so for the listeners who don't know what that means, could you explain a little bit what soul food really is? Soul food is, it’s just that food that when you take that one bite, it really just hits you so deep it just makes you go MMMM! MMM MMM MM! And it makes you just want more and more and more! Mmm, that does sound good, that does sound good, could you give me an idea of what kind of items we’re talking about? So we have some ribs, we have... Ribs? Ribs! Ribs! Did you say ribs? Oh, of course! Ribs and ribs and ribs! We have barbecue chicken and hotlinks. We have collard greens, red beans and rice, mac & cheese, corn on the cob, sliced bread, and... we have cornbread too! And it's all Southern Style! Wow! That does that sound good! Who.. who.. who’s our chef? Who’s cooking up all these delicious things for us? Our chef's name is Brenda Allen and she also makes fabulous desserts that are delicious and don't disappoint. Wow, that's amazing! Well that sounds really good, I think I'm gonna cut podcast right here because, I'll tell you what: it's time to eat! All right, let's do it!

If you like the show, please support my efforts by telling your friends and sharing this link --> https://linktr.ee/unexpectedenglish

(EP 45) Yes, it's more Unexpected English to help you improve your listening skills while you have fun. Listen and find out what's next! [Transcript below]

(EP 44) Your favorite English podcast here with a new episode from my closet!  I try to sound positive. Does it work? [Transcript below]

Hi everybody and welcome back to another episode of Unexpected English, your favorite English podcast! Yeah. Yeah this one is unexpected, maybe the most unexpected because, I dunno, I personally did not expect to be sitting in my closet ... sitting in my closet recording a podcast because I'm under quarantine. But I think you know all about it, right? Now, I mean, quarantine in Italy ... quarantine in Spain ... quarantine in France ... quarantine in New York and here in California.

(EP 43) Listen to real American English! Improve your listening skills with this Interview episode, complete with transcription to help you! Please support the podcast by telling your friends and sharing this link --> https://linktr.ee/unexpectedenglish

[Transcript] OK so I was walking down the street and I saw a United States Postal Service truck with a uhh uhh “postal carrier” inside. I that’s what we call, do we call “postal carrier” A “letter carrier,” yeah. Letter carrier -- it used to be mailman back in the day, but as you can tell from the voice I'm not talking to a mailman, I'm talking to uhhh.... uhhh... we don’t say “mail lady” that sounds funny! Yeah, no, a mail lady is about right, yeah, about right. OK mail man, mail lady, LETTER CARRIER, ok! So how long have you been a letter carrier? Since 2014. Since 2014 and ... how about walking, do have any idea how far you walk every day? It depends on the route. Um, I actually have a route over down the street from here. It's about 14 point something miles. Wait a minute, that's a long route... but you don't walk 14 miles. Well, no because, you know, you cover one side of the street and then you do the other side. So it's a good.. yeah it's a lot, it's a lot. Definitely more than 20,000 steps. So do you have a pedometer, I mean, do you ever check it out to see, it’s on your phone. Yeah, on the health app, on the iPhone. OK, and you said more than... It's definitely more than 20,000 steps. Right, so she does more than 20,000 steps uh, five days a week. Yeah, oh yeah, for sure. So, so OK that's why she know she's in shape because that’s 20,000 steps, five days a week delivering the mail. Umm, I'm thinking you must really hate Christmas time! Oh for sure, for sure! That's like, 12 hours plus every freaking day. For the whole season, it's so bad! And so can you tell people why, if they can't put two and two together, why a letter carrier would not like Christmas. Because of that, it's not only just packages but everything, always has to go out and that's like, every day. And it's ... it's a lot, it's a lot! It's just a lot of mail, a lotta Christmas cards, a lotta packages, a lotta presents, a lot of work! A lot of presents, for sure! OK, well that's about it, I guess I ran out of questions, but thanks for taking the time to talk to us. Yes of course, you’re welcome. Bye!

** That’s it! Thanks for listening and please tell your friends! Follow @UnexpectedEnglish on Instagram!