Meet the "Let's Talk About It" Podcast

The Quizlet set of words in bold: https://quizlet.com/ru/900863421/meet-the-lets-talk-about-it-podcast-flash-cards/

The password for the set: 1-1s753jSVG

[00:06] Hello and welcome to the “Let’s Talk About It" podcast by “Английский по-Британски”, I’m your host, Ivan.

[00:11] This is the inaugural episode, so it’ll be a little different to the rest of them. In this episode, I’m going to tell you a little bit about the “Let’s Talk About It” podcast, about me and about what you can expect from the show.

[00:29] I will also give you a few tips on how you can maximise your English learning. Most of these tips will be valid for almost any English podcast you listen to, whatever your level is.

[00:42] If you like what you hear, well, just hit the “subscribe” button and you’ll have the podcast in your pocket so you can learn English while learning incredible and fascinating things about the world.

[00:54] You can also find the transcript and the Quizlet set of useful words for this episode on my Boosty at http://boosty.to/britishly

[01:15] Now, let’s get cracking!

[01:18] And the first question you may be asking yourself if you don’t know me yet: “Who is this guy talking to me right now and why should I listen to anything he says?” Well, excellent question, let’s talk about it!

[01:31] My name is Ivan. I’m currently 24 years old and I’m recording this podcast from Russia. I’m a native born Russian and I’ve been learning the English language for almost 5 years already. “Not a great amount of time!”, you would say, but hold your horses! Learning is not about the time you learn something, it is about the time you actually spend learning something and in my case that is the most important aspect. Because during my first and second year of learning English I spent an enormous amount of time on it - from 5-7 hours a day every day.

[02:11] Nevertheless, I should say, that it wasn’t only about grammar. Most time I spent watching or reading something, and most importantly, listening to podcasts. The latest, actually, is my favourite method.

[02:24] Now I’m an English teacher and, what’s more important, a linguist. My knowledge in the field of linguistics does a great deal of help in the field of teaching, because not only can I look at the English language from a scientific perspective, but my students can understand the underlying reasons for either grammar structures or words used in a sentence one way or the other.

[02:49] Moreover, being a teacher and a linguist at the same time gives me the needed knowledge and experience to say without any hesitation what can and what cannot be useful for you on your way to fluency in English.

[03:04] So, why should you listen to this podcast Listening, as I recon, is the number one thing that will help you become fluent in English.

Listening and listening a lot is especially significant for those who don’t live in English speaking countries, because, for instance, here in Russia it’s a rare occasion to hear English by accident.

[03:26] What’s more, you have to try really hard to find something on the internet which is , at the same time, interesting and not too difficult to understand without subtitles. To make sure, here I’m not talking about those, who are already fluent in English, I’m referring to those who are on their way to fluency.

[03:47] So, this podcast is designed to be the ultimate solution to this problem being told at the speed which is appropriate for those who’s just started to learn English and those, who know it well, but want to improve their listening skills and learn some new vocabulary.

[04:03] Furthermore, I’m going to make it easy enough to understand for A1 and A2 levels while still being informative enough and useful for B2 and C1 levels.

[04:15] Now, having spoken about the reason you should listen to this podcast and who it is for, I really want you to know why I’ve come up with this idea of starting to create my own language learning podcast.

[04:27] Well, first and foremost, I started this podcast simply because l like learning things about the world and I’ll be glad to share them with you.

[04:37] Here on the internet I’ve come across some podcasts in English which are all about curious things, but they are, just, not for those who learn English and they might be quite difficult to understand due to them being spoken really fast with multiple different speakers, which makes those podcasts quite unforgiving to language learners.

[04:56] Secondly, those podcasts never have additional materials to help understand them better. And by saying that I mean a proper script and some highlighted vocabulary so that I never get stuck listening to them.

[05:09] So, I thought, why not try and fix all these problems and bring this proper version into life? And here I am, talking to you!

[05:18] Now, what can you expect from this podcast? Well, firstly, this podcast is for those who would like to know how the world works and who care about it, and about their bodies and minds.

[05:30] Here, not only will I talk about curios and complex things, but about the things around you and me: simple, but still interesting - meaning self care, religion, prices, mindfulness and so on!

[05:46] The “Let’s talk about it” podcast will be perfect for those who have this innate thirst for knowledge, for those who want to absorb information, digest it and use in their lives.

[05:58] Although the pace of the speech in this podcast may not be as fast as in real conversations or, for instance, in an episode of news on TV or YouTube, don’t expect the grammar and vocabulary to be dulled down.

[06:12] Please be aware that in every episode I’ll be talking at this pace, with the clarity and deliberation you hear now.

[06:19] I’m not talking too fast for the only reason - I want everyone to be involved and to understand this podcast. Nevertheless, I’m not talking too slow just because I want you all to learn effectively.

[06:33] Moreover, to make the listening and learning processes a nice experience for you, I will make posts with scripts and word-sets for each of the future episodes. The scripts will also have words or phrases in bold - those that you might find difficult to understand.

[06:50] Each of the words will have a description in simple words and a proper translation into Russian based on the context. You can always find the posts on Boosty at a fair and affordable price.

[07:02] Furthermore, I really care about your finances, so you don’t have to pay for the whole month, you can only pay for those posts with scripts and word-sets that you really need.

[07:15] Nevertheless, if want to support me, my school or podcast - you can always buy the monthly subscription and get the full access to all of the posts.

[07:24] Now I’ve already made the script and word-set for this episode and they are completely free because this is just a taster. And, for example, to learn what “taster” means go on My Boosty at boosty.to/britishly and check the script and word-set!

[07:44] Well, I really want every podcast to teach you something new or at least bring some new ideas into your mind, so that when you’ve finished with it, you’d go “wow, that was really cool” or “my god, I’ve never thought about that!”.

[08:01] To make sure the podcast is interesting and engaging, I will make episode on a whole range of subjects from “computer games” to “how car engines work”, or from “the greatest basketball player in the history” to “marine pollution”.

[08:18] Unfortunately, I can’t promise you that I’ll release episodes on a regular basis, I simply don’t know if the podcast works for you and me as well. But I can promise, I’ll try my best to make it interesting and profoundly helpful.

[8:34] Now, let’s get into the next part and talk about how you should use podcasts to learn English effectively.

[08:42] Well, number one tip is, if you can, listen without distractions. By this I mean, just make sure you're listening actively, not passively. But what’s the difference?

[08:54] Active listening means sitting down and listening carefully to the audio, making notes and writing down interesting phrases or words you hear. If you don’t like making notes, well, at least just try to sit tight and listen. Moreover, you can open up the script and read along or, for instance, try to shadow what you hear - by this I mean repeat what you hear along with the speaker.

[09:21] On the other hand we have passive listening, which is about doing something while listening to the audio. It is a very good way to practice listening, but may appear to be difficult to concentrate on this process, especially if a podcast is in a non-native language.

[09:37] The second tip is to set aside some time for listening every day or at least every other day. It’s essential to make it a consistent thing, not a one day.

[09:47] And, here you may ask me: “Why should I? It’s better when I listen when I want to”. Well, the thing is when you set aside some time a day, it’s more likely that you’ll actually do it rather than put it off due to something else.

[10:02] And the last but not the least tip - try to finds someone who you can listen to a podcast with. It has not just one, but two advantages at the same time.

[10:12] The first one is that you can literally listen together which might be useful because you can help each other along the way. For instance, when one of you two doesn’t understand something, the other one does and can help the first one.

[10:26] The second advantage is you can discuss the podcast you listen to after the fact or even at present while listening. And, isn’t that a great opportunity for both of you to practice your speaking skills?

[10:38] Finally, I just want to say that podcasts are such an incredible language learning tool! Unfortunately, this tool is so underused by most of language learners and I don’t know why because podcasts can improve your not only listening skills, but writing, reading and even speaking ones! Just use those simple little tips I’ve given you and you’ll do great at listening and never notice how one day you’ll find yourself fluent!

[11:08] Right, I think it’s time to wrap it up! If you’re still here with me, I hope you’re finding this podcast interesting! Maybe it’s not so fascinating this time as much as it will be in the future, but the only reason for that is that this episode is a taster and I really wanted to tell you about me and the podcast, and also give some tips on how to listen to podcasts effectively.

[11:34] All the future episodes, on the other hand, will be all about our fascinating and peculiar world or life. So, I really hope that you’ll hit the "subscribe" button and follow along!

[11:46] Moreover, if you have trouble learning English or you are feeling stuck not knowing what to do to improve and develop your knowledge, then you can always write me on “Английский по-Британски” on VK and ask for help. My brave teachers and I are always glad to see new faces joining the courses!

[12:07] OK, I think, that’s it for episode number one. I hope you’ve enjoyed it and that it’s given you a taste of things to come! Thank you for listening! My name’s been Ivan, stay tuned! Ta-da!