English Tonight - Podcast Episode 1
текст песни

Intro: Welcome to the English Tonight Podcast where you can learn English online in your own
time; even at 2:00 A.M. in your pajamas.
Janet: Hello, hello and welcome to the English Tonight Podcast. This is Episode 1 and my name
is Janet. I will be your host for this podcast. If you would like to read or print a transcript
of this podcast, please visit www.speakenglishtonight.com. Again, this is episode number
one. Thank you so much for listening; whether you found us through our website, English
Tonight, or through iTunes. I am glad you are taking time out of your busy schedule and
life to listen to this podcast.
The first step to improving your English is by doing something. I congratulate you for
taking action and finding an English podcast to listen to, to help you improve your
English listening and understanding. Before we get started, I just want to go over a few
things:
#1: I will not be speaking super slow during this podcast as it will not help you in the
long run if I speak at a slowed pace of speech. When you’re out in the real world
speaking to native English speakers, they generally will not slow their speech. Most
commonly, native English speakers will repeat things, which means they’ll say
something more than once; they’ll rephrase which means that they’ll something but in a
different way. So if you didn’t understand the first time, they’ll say the same thing but a
little bit different to help you understand. Some people will try to make a gesture or point
at something to help you understand what they’re talking about; repeating, rephrasing and
gestures are all very helpful.
Sometimes, you might encounter someone who’s not very interested in helping you learn
English. Then most likely this type of person will annoyingly raise their voice, which
means speak louder as if you suddenly would understand English better with them yelling
at you.
Now I don’t know if you’ve had this happen to you but I know when I was learning my
second language, I definitely had many times when I didn’t understand what someone
was telling me. And instead of just repeating themself they started getting louder and
louder and all I wanted to tell them is, “You know what, I’m not deaf. I can hear you just
fine. It’s just that I don’t understand.” So, you are just learning to speak and understand
English and you will occasionally need extra help. So, if you do encounter someone that
raises their voice and yells and repeats things in a not so helpful manner, find someone
else to talk to. So, in this podcast I don’t plan on yelling at you today or any time for that
matter. Yelling is not a helpful way for someone to learn English. I might raise my voice
a little bit but that’s just because I’m expressing my feelings and emotions.
Out in the real world, you will get confused if you are used to listening to someone like
your English teacher or friend slowing down their speech. And I know you don’t want to
get confused, do you? Who wants to listen to someone speak really slow, anyway? I
don’t want you to fall asleep while you listen to the English Tonight Podcast. That would
be horrible.
Now I do understand why some people that are teaching English speak at a slow rate but
it is not necessary and it could be setting English students up for embarrassment and
failure later on. If you are used to someone always speaking in English slowly, you won’t
understand when you actually meet and um…uh, meet a real person out on the street.
Um, you… they’ll speak at a normal rate and you’ll get confused and you’ll constantly be
saying, “What?” and making them repeat themselves. So, it’s best that we create good
habits from the beginning and you, as time goes on, will need to train your ears to listen
for important information. Native speakers, the TV, movies, music and podcasts all are at
a normal rate of speech.
#2: I am an American. I don’t know if you can tell that yet or not. I am from the United
States so I will be using American English. If I know something that I’m talking about is,
uh, different in British English or Australian English or Canadian English, I will let you
know. But for the most part, I will be speaking American English. And I’m really sure
you wouldn’t want to hear me fake a British accent now, would you? That would be bad.
#3: I assume, I am making assumption here, that you are here to improve your English.
Yay! You don’t need to understand everything. What? Yeah, I’ll repeat that for you. You
don’t need to understand every single word you hear in this podcast or in English in
general. It is important to understand the main idea or the overall idea but don’t get
worried or dwell on not understanding every word. Are you trying to figure out what
dwell means now? Dwell means to pay special attention to or a lot of attention to
something. So remember I told you not to focus on every single little word. You don’t
need to know everything. Stop trying to be perfect.
So, since this is English Tonight’s first podcast, I am nervous. Can you tell? I guess I do
have some experience working with microphones. The schools where I have taught for
the last five years make us wear microphone headsets every single day while we are
teaching. But that’s not important right now. So back to me being nervous, I am nervous.
And I thought I would teach you five idioms or expressions or phrases that are
commonly, commonly used when you talk about nervousness. So, are you ready? All
right…
1: Sweating bullets
Sweating bullets, yes bullets, the things that go into guns um obviously is not something
that would really happens… So, sweating bullets means to be extremely nervous or
anxious about something. An example sentence would be, “I was sweating bullets before
my job interview. I was so afraid I wouldn’t know how to answer the questions.”
Number two, idiom number
2: Butterflies in my stomach or get butterflies in my stomach.
So, butterflies in your stomach means that you have a fluttering and flutters like what the
wings of a butterfly do, they flutter so fluttering or a slightly odd feeling in your stomach
when you’re nervous. And an example sentence with, um, butterflies in your stomach
would be, “Whenever I have to speak to someone in English, I get butterflies in my
stomach.”
3: Get the jitters.
Yes, the jitters. So let’s see. Get the jitters means that you feel especially nervous or
anxious, um, usually before an event or something that’s about to happen. So, an example
sentence with the “get the jitters.” Hmm. All right. “Michael Jackson always got the
jitters before singing at a big concert.” All right.
Idiom number 4: On pins and needles
So on pins and mid… needles not middles, needles, excuse me, that means to be anxious
or in suspense, worried or excited. So an example sentence with “on pins and needles.”
Let’s see. Um, “I have been on pins and needles all week long. I can’t wait to find out if I
got the job I interviewed for last week.”
And the last idiom is: Tongue-tied.
So your tongue is obviously what’s in your mouth and tie is what you would do with your
shoe laces. So it’s really not possible that your tongue would be tied, but tongue tied
means that you’re unable to express yourself clearly or fluently. So an example with
tongue-tied would be, “I always get tongue tied when I have to speak in front of a lot of
people.”
All right. So I hope some of those were new or interesting to you. Next time that you’re
in English class or about to make a presentation in English at work, try using one of these
idioms. Tell your professor or your colleagues that you have the jitters or you have
butterflies in your stomach. It will help you relax a little bit and let other know how you
are feeling.
Now we’ll move on to the last topic of this podcast, and still does have to do with being
nervous and more so about your feelings. So every day, I get emails, um, from many
people from around the world asking me how they can improve their English and telling
me that they’re very embarrassed and afraid to speak English and what can they do?
Many people say they just don’t have the confidence to carry on a conversation or they
are afraid to make mistakes. So let me tell you something – Yes, YOU! – anyone can
learn English. I’ll repeat that – ANYONE CAN LEARN ENGLISH. That means that you
can learn English. Yes, YOU. The problem is, is that too many people let their feeling
determine how they perform and do in life. Your feelings and mindset or your thoughts
influence everything you do in life. It especially influences how quickly you learn
English.
Now you are probably asking yourself, “What do feelings and English learning success
have to do with one another?” A lot. Your feelings and emotions about learning English
directly influences your success. So, how do your feelings influence you? When you go
to English class