Zeitgeist Banana

Welcome to Zeitgeist banana.

Sign up for the LetThemTalkTV newsletter here. It's full of interesting insights and stories about the English language and it's free! http://eepurl.com/izRKww

In this video I'm joined by Jon from the Monty English Podcast

https://montyenglish.podbean.com/

There are a lot of elections coming up around the world so we thought we'd make a video about election vocabulary so that next time you're following the news of an election in English you'll understand it better. Some of the expressions you might hear. 

Polling station

Voting booth

Ballot paper

Ballot box

The poll 

An opinion poll

The count

A recount

A run-off

The vote

An MP (Member of Parliament) A postal vote

A proxy vote

A spoilt ballot paper. 

About 1% of the English language is Dutch including some very common words. In this episode Jon and Gideon delve into the history of the Dutch in English. You'll also learn some idioms with "Dutch" in them. 

Humour is arguably the most difficult thing for a non-native speaker to understand. There is so much word play and cultural references. In this episode we look at a few jokes and dissect them explaining why they are funny (or not)

In this podcast Jon and Gideon discuss expressions and vocabulary you will need to understand detective series and fiction whether it be Sherlock Holmes, Agatha Christie or Columbo. This episode will reveal all

Sometimes in life you have to criticize someone you know. However, you want to do this in a friendly, diplomatic way that doesn't cause offence and results in the behavioral change you desire. In this video we discuss the ways to do this and you'll learn lots of vocabulary and expressions too.

It's not easy being polite in a language with only one word for YOU. In this podcast Jon and Gideon will show you how it's done.

In this episode Gideon and Jon discuss London. The city, The City and the London accents including Cockney. If you're planning to visit London you'll get some tips on places to go, a little bit of history and how to speak like a Londoner.

Today Jon and Gideon discuss the RP accent. That's the standard British accent and probably the one you're learning if you're studying British English. What does it mean? Who speaks it? And what's the difference between this and Oxford English or The Queens' English or BBC English. All will be revealed.

2020 was a difficult year due to the pandemic. However, linguistically it was quite rich giving us a large number of interesting new words. It doesn't stop with Covid though, social media and technology also provided us with many new ways of expression.

In Part 2 Jon and Gideon look at some the strangest menu translations where you ask yourself either 'no way would I eat that' or 'what the hell does that mean?' Calling your restaurant something in a foreign language is also a risky strategy.