Welcome to this special Christmas edition of Ze English Podcast! This month, Sue and Lawrence dive into one of Britain’s most mysterious festive traditions: the Christmas pudding. Sue reveals her granny’s secret recipe — a recipe so old-fashioned it takes three days, a lot of stirring, a Christmas wish, and even something called suet (don’t panic, we explain everything).

If you love good food — and we know you do — get ready for spices, brandy, Guinness, a bit of chaos, and plenty of Christmas cheer.

Let’s get into Stage 1… before Sue runs out of time!

This week, on the last Thursday of November, is Thanksgiving day. For this special occasion we have a bonus edition taken from the archive in company with our dearly missed former colleague Regina, who talks us through the meaning and mood music that accompanies what is one of the most popular holidays in the American calendar.

In today’s episode, we speak with our colleague Floyd in Jamaica, which was directly hit by Hurricane Melissa about three weeks ago. Floyd tells us what daily life has been like since the storm, describes the damage in his hometown of Montego Bay, and explains how people are slowly rebuilding with courage and determination.

France is the land of butter, cheese, and steak tartare — so it’s no surprise that only about 2% of the French actually call themselves vegetarian.

Across the Channel, more than 15% of adults in the UK now follow some kind of meat-free diet. In today’s episode, Hazel tells us why it's important to her and how she has handled raising her children as vegetarians.

La langue française évolue au fil des années pour s’adapter aux enjeux de demain. L’ idée du langage inclusif est de rendre la langue plus égalitaire. Mais tout le monde n’est pas d’accord. Alors, découvrons pourquoi avec Emilie, notre collègue qui explique ce phénomène, son impact et la controverse qu'il a suscitée.

Ciao e benvenuti alla primissima puntata della nuova stagione del podcast ECSPLICITE, in cui discutiamo di un argomento comune a tutte le lingue e culture. Le nostre colleghe Giulia e Alessia approfondiscono il tema dell'uso del linguaggio neutro dal punto di vista del genere in italiano, la sua importanza, le difficoltà pratiche che incontra e i modi per evitare il linguaggio di genere.

In den letzten Jahren in Deutschland gab es viele kreative Ideen, wie man geschlechtsgerechter und weniger diskriminierend sprechen kann – vor allem wenn man über Gruppen spricht, die gemischt oder nicht genau definiert sind oder wenn man über Minderheiten jeglicher Art redet.

Heute, zum Start der neuen Saison, befasst sich unsere Kollegin Bianca mit dem Thema „inklusive Sprache”, seiner Bedeutung und natürlich auch den damit verbundenen Problemen.

Lo normal sería pensar que las nuevas generaciones utilicen más el lenguaje Inclusivo y que las personas mayores no, pero la realidad es muy diferente. Su uso no se divide por generaciones, sino por ideologías.

Nuestro colega Guillermo profundiza en el tema y comparte sus opiniones sobre lo que significa utilizar un lenguaje inclusivo, por qué es importante y, inevitablemente, los problemas que plantea.  

To celebrate the 4th season of ECSPLICITE podcasting we have chosen a topic about language, culture and society that is relevant to all the languages we train : Inclusive language.  

Our world is changing and the language we use along with it.  We asked our South African colleague Deonne, currently living and working in Korea, to share her ideas about what it means to use inclusive language in South Africa, why it is important and inevitably the problems it raises.

To celebrate this final episode in this season and to anticipate the summer, we have added a companion piece to our last episode about the association Les Minots de l'Hosto at the Children's Hospital in La Timone in Marseille, as we talk to the school's director Benjamin, who's going to tell us all about the school and its collaboration with the association we support.

Here's the link again for anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause. 

https://www.lesminotsdelhosto.org/nous-soutenir