Better at English - Learn English - EFL ESL podcast!

Hello my lovely English learners! Lori here, your teacher from BetterAtEnglish.com. I love technology, so we’re talking about robots today, but not in the way you might expect. A lot of conversations about robots have to do with whether or not a robot or machine could ever develop genuine feelings or emotions. But today we’re going to be thinking about our own emotions and feelings toward robots, particularly empathy. Can we feel empathy toward robots? And if so, why?

Links to pre-listening background -- to get the most out of this podcast:
Short video of someone “torturing” a robot dinosaur (part of a research experiment). Make sure you watch it with sound. What do you feel as you watch this?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wAVtkh0mL20

Kate Darling: Why we have an emotional connection to robots (TED talk)
https://www.ted.com/talks/kate_darling_why_we_have_an_emotional_connection_to_robots?language=en

Yasmin's profile on italki

Full transcript of this episode

Allow me to introduce you to Kate Darling. She is a super cool researcher who is looking into this very question. I’m going to play you a little bit from the beginning of her TED talk, where she explains how she got into this line of research. The link to the full presentation is in the show notes. It’s as entertaining as it is interesting and thought provoking, so I can wholeheartedly recommend you check out the whole thing. OK, here comes Kate:

Kate Darling:

“There was a day, about 10 years ago, when I asked a friend to hold a baby dinosaur robot upside down. It was this toy called a Pleo that I had ordered, and I was really excited about it because I've always loved robots. And this one has really cool technical features. It had motors and touch sensors and it had an infrared camera. And one of the things it had was a tilt sensor, so it knew what direction it was facing. And when you held it upside down, it would start to cry. And I thought this was super cool, so I was showing it off to my friend, and I said, "Oh, hold it up by the tail. See what it does." So we're watching the theatrics of this robot struggle and cry out. And after a few seconds, it starts to bother me a little, and I said, "OK, that's enough now. Let's put him back down." And then I pet the robot to make it stop crying.

And that was kind of a weird experience for me. For one thing, I wasn't the most maternal person at the time. Although since then I've become a mother, nine months ago, and I've learned that babies also squirm when you hold them upside down. (Laughter)

But my response to this robot was also interesting because I knew exactly how this machine worked, and yet I still felt compelled to be kind to it. And that observation sparked a curiosity that I've spent the past decade pursuing. Why did I comfort this robot? And one of the things I discovered was that my treatment of this machine was more than just an awkward moment in my living room, that in a world where we're increasingly integrating robots into our lives, an instinct like that might actually have consequences, because the first thing that I discovered is that it's not just me.”

She’s right, it’s not just her. I found a short video on Youtube that shows somebody being really mean to the same type of robot dinosaur that Kate uses in her research. It’s only one minute long, so if you want to pause the podcast and go watch it, feel free. The link is in the show notes. Anyway, when I watched this video myself I felt really uncomfortable, even though I knew it was just a toy robot. I’m not alone; here are some of the Youtube comments.

“Why would you do this!!!! It looks so scared, please stop and let me hug it.”

“The last part when he was hitting him to the table I heard it crying; that’s so sad.”

“I feel bad for him, although I know it’s just a pile of plastic and metal that can’t even think.”

Of course, Youtube comments being what they are,

Episode summary
Autumn is in full swing here in the northern hemisphere, so this Real English Conversations episode is full of vocabulary related to the colors, weather, moods and feelings associated with this time of year. Lori and her friend Eliza talk about exercising outdoors, the health benefits of spending time out in nature, and whether or not it’s a good idea to pick and eat wild mushrooms. Are you feeling tired and drained? Grab your audio player and some headphones, get yourself to a park or forest, and have a nice walk while practicing your English listening! I guarantee you'll feel better after you do this than you did when you started. :-)

Get in touch with Eliza
Eliza on Udemy
Eliza’s instagram
Eliza’s teacher profile on italki

Supplementary material for further study

How nature affects our health and well-being
https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing

What is leaf peeping? Read this article in The Guardian and find out. Includes a wealth of adjectives related to being outdoors in the autumn.
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/oct/09/autumn-colour-brings-joy-to-uks-growing-band-of-leaf-peepers

This article explains how you can boost your mood by spending time in nature
https://www.health.harvard.edu/mind-and-mood/sour-mood-getting-you-down-get-back-to-nature

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. Wherever and whenever you happen to be listening to this I hope you’re doing great. I’m recording this in early November 2020, and if you aren’t living out in the bush somewhere with no connection to the outside world, you’re probably aware that it’s a pretty stressful time. So because the past few episodes I’ve given you have been about rather heavy topics, I thought I’d give you something lighter for a change.

A couple of weeks ago I recorded a fun conversation with another English teacher. Her name is Eliza and she is from Belarus. She’s not a native speaker of English, but her English is fantastic. I really enjoyed talking to Eliza, and I think you’ll agree that her infectious enthusiasm and positivity really shine in this conversation. And I also think that teachers who are not native speakers of the language they teach have a deep understanding of what it’s actually like to learn that language, and that this can really benefit their students. I often wish that I could somehow experience learning English like a non-native speaker, just so I would have insight into what it’s really like. Eliza teaches online at italki, so if you feel like your personalities would click and you want to get in touch with her about lessons, you’ll find her italki profile linked the show notes.

All right, the conversation you’ll hear is actually the very first time Eliza and I ever spoke. So I start off by asking her about how she learned English, because I was really curious about that. What follows is a great example of a typical informal conversation in English between two people who don’t know each other, but who at least have some things in common. Becoming conversational in a foreign language is really difficult because conversations are completely unpredictable. There’s no way that you can prepare in advance for everything that might happen in a conversation. As you’ll hear, Eliza and I cover quite a range of topics. We talk about how Eliza learned English as a child, then move on to the health benefits of spending time outside, our favorite seasons, and even whether or not it’s a good idea to pick and eat wild mushrooms.

Here in the northern hemisphere it’s autumn, or fall, right now, so there is a lot of vocabulary related to the colors, the weather and the feelings and moods of autumn. And hey, I even learned a new English expression from this conversation...listen and see if you can hear what that was. And if you’re interested in grammar there is a great example of the use of the modal verb would ...

When you watch the news these days, do you trust your eyes and ears? Do you think what you’re seeing is real and happened the way it is being shown? Or is your first reaction to think: Hmm, I wonder if this video is fake? That’s what today’s episode is about, so stay tuned.

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW - Get the full transcript here: https://www.betteratenglish.com/053-is-seeing-believing-deepfakes-and-the-information-apocalypse-transcript

Before we get started, I hope you’ll indulge me in a little Better at English background info. I don’t do Better at English for the money, but some of you have been going out of your way to send me thank-you gifts. So thank you so much to Charles for his very generous Paypal donation, and to the mystery person who sent me the Handbook of Self-Determination research from my Amazon wish list. I honestly didn’t know that it was even possible to find my Amazon wish list anymore, so getting a mystery book delivered was a real surprise! I’d also like to thank Zhuo Tao (I hope I’m saying that right) who wrote my favorite review this month: It goes like this “This podcast is getting better and better by every episode. It’s no longer just some language learning material, but food for thought as well.” That is indeed what I’m trying to do, so that was really nice to get that feedback.

You can say thanks here: https://www.betteratenglish.com/support-better-at-english

All feedback from you lovely listeners, whether it’s reviews, email, voice messages, donations, Amazon wish list gifts...it’s all positive feedback that fuels my motivation to keep doing this...it’s a sign that you’re getting value from the episodes, which is what it’s all about. So thank you!

OK, thank you for indulging me...let’s get on with today’s topic.

Deepfakes and the Information Apocalypse
Today we’re looking at misinformation and disinformation in our modern age, and how technologies like deepfake are making it increasingly harder for us to know what is really happening in the world, to separate fact from fiction. This episode builds on my earlier episodes about AI—that’s artificial intelligence—which you can find further down the podcast feed as episodes 47 and 48.

Before we go any further, take a moment to ask yourself how much you trust what you see, hear, and read these days, whether it’s online, in a newspaper, or coming from an expert or politician in a live televised address. Is seeing believing, as the expression goes? Go ahead, think of some recent examples that are personally relevant to you. Now ask yourself how your beliefs about what is true influence your actions, how much they shape what you actually do as you move through life. How do these beliefs influence, for example, who you vote for, what you buy, what you eat, which books you read, which car you drive?

You don’t need to be a Ph.D. in psychology to understand that our beliefs about what is true or false affect our actions. Nobody wants to make decisions based on lies or misinformation, so we all want information that we can trust. Just to give a current example, look at what’s happening regarding masks and the Corona-virus. If you think masks do help stop the spread and protect others, you’re likely to wear one even though they are uncomfortable and it’s kind of a pain in the butt. And if you think masks don’t help at all, you are more likely to resist wearing a mask or even flat out refuse. I mean, why bother if they don’t work, right? And if you have really strong beliefs about this, you might even march in protest against the rules that require you to wear a mask. The point is, your chosen path will be based on what you believe is right and true.

We are living in a pretty crazy time right now, and humanity is facing huge challenges. And it’s no secret that many of the big issues are extremely polarizing. And if you try to build an informed opinion by examining the information and arguments of both sides,

Talking about fat and fat bodies is a tricky area to navigate in English because the word FAT is so laden with meaning, associations, emotions, and feelings -- and these are different for everyone. In this episode, you'll hear a wide variety of people who self-identify as fat talking about their experiences. You'll hear how they think, feel and talk about their own bodies and how they experience things as a person of size. There are many registers (styles) of English represented here, as well as many different regional dialects. Links to all sources are provided, and most of these are videos. I encourage you to watch the videos to see the language being used in context. A transcript preview is below. You can find a pdf of the full transcript here: https://www.betteratenglish.com/052-the-other-f-word-talking-about-fat-transcript

I hope you find this episode thought provoking and useful.

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW

Hi English learners, Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. In today's episode you are going to hear various people's thoughts, opinions and feelings related to the f-word. No, not the swear word you hear all the time in movies and TV. I'm talking about the other F-word: fat. Yes, fat.

Madison A Krall

Let's talk about fat bias and thin privilege | Madison A. Krall | TEDxMileHigh
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gak58BcuPh0

Madison: When you hear the word fat what thoughts and images come to mind? Some of you might think of fat as the extra 10 pounds you're currently trying to lose. Others might be thinking, "Hmm, I wonder what the fat content was in the bag of potato chips I had for lunch?" And some of you when you hear the word fat, might think back to that time in middle school when someone called you fat, and how it has affected the rest of your life. Let's just admit it. Fat can be a pretty loaded word, no matter who you are.

Kelli Jean Drinkwater
Enough with the fear of fat | Kelli Jean Drinkwater
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bzlYyhh3X0w

Kelli: I'm here today to talk to you about a very powerful little word, one that people will do almost anything to avoid becoming. Billion-dollar industries thrive because of the fear of it, and those of us who undeniably are it are left to navigate a relentless storm surrounding it. I'm not sure if any of you have noticed, but I'm fat. Not the lowercase, muttered-behind-my-back kind, or the seemingly harmless chubby or cuddly. I'm not even the more sophisticated voluptuous or curvaceous kind. Let's not sugarcoat it. I am the capital F-A-T kind of fat. I am the elephant in the room.

Fat | Eating Disorders | One Word | Cut
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UWXwIPs-xWg

Speaker 1: There are lots of good fats, and I don't think fat on your body is a bad thing. And I don't think fat in your food means fat on your body but it's been used as hate speech.

Speaker 2: Fat can be a hateful word. It can destroy some people. But in some ways fat can be good. And depending on how you image yourself, your fat can actually be great.

Speaker 3: I see a lot of mothers with their daughters say, don't eat that or else you're gonna get fat. It's like, is that really the one thing that you don't want your daughter to be?

*********

Yes, a fat is a loaded word that raises a lot of feelings, emotions, and associations. I’m taking a risk with this episode, because, as you’ll hear, conversations around fat and body size can quickly lead you into precarious territory, even if you have the best of intentions. It’s a highly charged topic. But I think that’s all the more reason to understand different people’s perspectives on fat and being fat, and to have language to talk about it sensitively.

Apart from vocabulary related to the topic, in this episode you’ll hear many registers or styles of English: conversations, extracts from prepared talks like TED talks, segments from interviews, and even monologues from people on Youtube.

Did you know that you can get FREE transcriptions of any podcast in English, and that it's fast and easy to do? That's right, ANY PODCAST! And did I say FREE? If you are serious about your English learning, you will love Otter.ai -- a FREE online service that transcribes audio files. This means podcasts, audio taken from videos, anything at all where the language is fairly clear. All you do is upload the file to otter.ai, and then let the A.I do the rest. It's unbelievably awesome. You can watch my little YouTube demo video demo here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Gw4jviWdno

You can find Otter.ai here:
https://otter.ai

Note: This is not a sales pitch, I don't have any involvement with Otter.ai other than being a very satisfied customer (I use their paid plan because I need the extra features. You won't need extra features unless you want to transcribe more than 10 hours of audio per month, or if you need to transcribe files that are longer than 40 minutes each.)

The transcript of this audio podcast is below.

If you get value from my podcasts, please leave a rating or review. It really helps me a lot!

Cheers,
Lori

TRANSCRIPT
Hi, English learners, Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. Today, I don't have a conversation for you, I'm actually working on the next conversational episode. And that should be up in the next couple of days. But as I was working on it, I realized that the online service, the tool that I use to transcribe the conversations would be super, super useful for your English learning. So I just wanted to share that with you today, and let you know about it so you can try it yourself.

First of all, let's get this out of the way. It's completely free. And I don't make any money for recommending it to you. No one is asking me to tell you this. It's simply something that I use myself and that I think, is really awesome. And I think it would almost be a crime for me to not let you know about it.

"Okay, okay, Lori. All right, fine, get on with it, let us know what it is."

Okay, the tool is called Otter.ai. That's O T T E R dot A I. And what it is, is an online service where you can upload audio files, and it, the artificial intelligence will create a transcript of the audio.

But that's not even the best part. For me, I think the most useful thing, the thing that makes it so awesome for learning English, is that once the AI is finished with your transcript, you can listen to the audio as you're reading the transcript, and then you can click anywhere in the transcript, and the audio will jump to that section.

So just imagine the implications of this. Now you can take any audio file with spoken English, and you can upload it, have it transcribed for free, and then listen to it, click anywhere in the transcript, and listen to just that part. So if you find a section that you want to do some kind of listen-and-repeat practice for your pronunciation or your intonation, or just to kind of "wrap your mouth around" a new piece of language, it's super, super easy to do now.

I think it's just so great that you can go and find any podcast in English, anything that you want to listen to anything that you want to learn from, and it doesn't matter if they have already given you a transcript or not. You can just upload the file and make your own which is super, super awesome.

The free plan on otter.ai does have some limitations. And one of those is that you can only transcribe 10 hours' worth of audio per month. So every month it resets and you get another 10 hours. And the files that you upload can only be up to 40 minutes long. So if you have a super long, say, an epic Joe Rogan podcast that's three hours long, you're going to have to --before you upload it for transcription -- you are going to have to cut that up into 40 minute segments if you want to transcribe the whole thing.

kind of difficult to explain these things in an audio podcast.

Imagine if you will, the following scenario. You’ve volunteered to take part in a psychology study, say, at your university. All you have to do is show up to the lab, sit by yourself in a little booth and play a very simple game of chance, something like flipping a coin, where there's no skill involved, only luck. You get paid one dollar just for showing up, that’s guaranteed. And if you’re lucky and win the game, you’ll get paid 5 dollars cash. But if you lose, you get nothing.

Here’s the kicker: it's up to you to tell the researchers if you won or lost, they won't be able to tell.

So there are three possible outcomes: you can win and get 5 dollars, you can lose and get nothing, or....you can lose, but lie and still get the 5 dollars. And nobody will know. What would you do? What do you think other people would do?

As it happens, a recent study just looked at this, and there was a cunning little twist: those crafty researchers actually DID know if people won or lost. So they also knew if people told the truth about it or if they lied.

The study, called "Cheaters, Liars, or Both? A New Classification of Dishonesty Profiles" is absolutely fascinating. And today you'll hear a conversation ‒ in American English – with some people discussing it. The conversation is from one of my favorite podcasts, The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe. It's a podcast featuring smart people having interesting discussions about science, technology, and critical thinking. If you are at all interested in those topics, I highly recommend it for your English listening practice. This is definitely a show that will make you smarter, and will teach you lots of vocabulary. The episodes don't always have transcripts, but I've transcribed the part you're going to hear today and put it in the show notes, which you can find at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

You know, if you like, you can turn this episode into a more challenging task for yourself. In the show notes you'll also find a link to a New York Times article about the study. In the conversation you'll hear a woman summarizing this same article to her friends. So before you continue listening, you can hit pause and go read the article yourself. Then imagine how you might summarize it for friend and what you might discuss. What language would you use? What vocabulary would you need? Spend a few moments imagining how you might talk about it with a group of friends. Then listen to the rest of this podcast and compare your ideas with what you hear in the conversation.

All right, let's get to it. You'll hear a woman named Cara doing most of the talking. She explains the study's findings to her friends Steve, Bob, Jay, and Evan. They they all discuss what they make of it. Are you ready? Let's go:

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW
Get the full transcript here

Steve: All right, Cara, you're gonna tell us about the psychology of lying and cheating.

Cara: Right! So this is a field of psychological inquiry that goes back basically to the beginning of experimental psychology, right? Psychologists, psychologists have always been interested in deception. So a new paper said, OK, well, we want to do is we want to see if we can sort of beef up and retest some old concepts in the kind of construct of lying, cheating deception, but we want to go beyond that. And we want to say, Okay, this is not an all or nothing phenomenon, right? Like, you could say, That person's a liar, or that person lied, or that person's a cheater, that person's dishonest, but there are shades of grey, aren't there?

Steve: Mm hmm.

Evan: Of course, of course.

Bob: Yeah, absolutely. Little white lies.

Cara: Totally. There lies that actually help us.

Bob: There are lies that actually get people killed.

Cara: Yep. Lies to get people killed and lies that we can't help but but commit, that's not a good word. But tell? Yeah, because they're the only they're the best of a bad situation we're dealing with or something like...

Neighbors can be great friends, but let’s face it: sometimes they can be absolutely horrible. But what do you do when you’re stuck living next to a neighbor who you just can’t get along with, no matter what you try? In this episode of Better at English, Lori introduces you to the “How To” podcast with Charles Duhigg. It’s a conversational podcast that covers ways to deal with all kinds of life problems, and does so in an entertaining and fun way. And best of all, it has free transcripts that you can use for your English learning. Lori plays some extracts from the conversation, and looks at some of the interesting language.

The full transcript of this episode is here:

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com. So nice that you’re here! Come on in, kick off your shoes, sit back and get ready for some English listening practice.

Today I’m going to play you some bits of conversation from one of my current favorite podcasts. It’s not a special English learning podcast; it’s a podcast for native speakers of English. But if you can follow along with the conversations in my own podcast, you should be able to follow this one as well. Just like I do, they have free transcripts available on their website, so you can use them to support your English learning. I’ve put links to everything in the show notes.

The name of the podcast is “How to with Charles Duhigg”. If the name Charles Duhigg is familiar to you, it could be that you’ve heard of his book “T he Power of Habit.” If you’re an upper-intermediate or advanced learner and you’re interested in psychology, I can highly recommend it. The Power of Habit is one of those books that teaches you something useful and just makes your life better. Charles’s podcast is the same: it’s entertaining, of course, but it also teaches you useful strategies that you can apply in your own life.

“How to” is an interview show, so it’s very conversational. Charles helps people figure out how to deal with difficult or awkward problems. He usually has a co-host who is either a celebrity or some kind of expert.

In the episode called “How to confront a crazy neighbor,” Charles’s co-host is comedian and actor Tig Notaro. Their guest is a woman named Sarah. Sarah is in the middle of a very unpleasant and stressful conflict with her neighbor. Charles and Tig are going to help her figure out what to do. First let’s listen to Sarah giving some background information about her living situation:

“My name is Sarah and I’m a college counselor. I work with high school students who are low income, and I just bought a condo this year. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a house or anything. So that was pretty exciting. It’s a small building, there are just three units in it. So it’s me living on the first floor and then a guy who lives behind me and then a family who lives upstairs.”

Sara mentions that she lives in a condo. Condo is short for condominium. In the US, a condo is like an apartment or flat, but with one big difference. Do you know what it is? Can you guess from what you heard? Listen again:

“I just bought a condo this year. This is the first time I’ve ever owned a house or anything. So that was pretty exciting.“

The key word is bought. Sarah said she bought the condo, not that she rents it. So the difference between a condo and an apartment or flat is that in a condo, you own the space that you live in – the unit. You actually buy it, and you can sell it. But in an apartment you just pay rent every month. You don’t actually own an apartment unit. So buying a condo is a much bigger deal than just renting an apartment because it’s such a big financial investment.

In Sarah’s condo building, there are three living units – it sounds like they are all attached. She shares a common front porch area with the other people who live there.

So you’re probably wondering, “What’s the problem?

This is NOT a sales episode, I promise! Seriously, I have found and tested the BEST place to find people to practice speaking English with for free. It only takes 5 minutes to set up an account, and you'll be up and running, practicing your English with nice people from all over the world. No hidden charges, no sales, I promise you...as of September 2020 when I am publishing this podcast, it's 100% free. There aren't even annoying ads! No excuses. Start speaking NOW. :-)

You can find free4talk.com here. It's a great place to practice speaking with other non-native speakers.
If you prefer to have structured lessons with a native speaker teacher, italki is probaby still the best value. But for FREE speaking practice, definitely check out free4talk! For my list of other places where you can practice your English online, see this page.

TRANSCRIPT
Hi, English learners, Lori here, your teacher from betteratenglish.com.

Today I have a very short and simple episode for you. Now, I know a lot of you really want to get more English speaking practice, because you're mainly concerned with becoming more fluent with your English speaking. But the problem is that you have a hard time finding people to practice with, especially since, you know, it can be expensive to get an online teacher, and you don't have money and I totally, totally understand.

So what if I told you that five minutes after listening to this podcast you could be online, joining in a whole community of people just like you who want to practice their English. And you could actually be practicing, literally within five minutes.

I swear it blew my mind when I found this site. It's called Free4talk.com, and it's 100% free.

And I promise you, I have no vested interest in this website. I don't know them. They're not paying me anything. I don't make any money for recommending it to you. I just think it's such an amazing resource that I would actually feel really bad if I didn't tell you all about it.

Now, if you're already listening and thinking, "Oh, no, no, that's not for me. I've already tried conversation exchanges and it's a real pain in the butt because I have to first log in and look at a bunch of profiles and then find somebody and then send a message and, and hope that they're going to get back to me and then we have to arrange a time and then more often than not, when I show up for our appointment, there's nobody there, they've totally flaked on me." And I get it. That is a real pain, and that is frustrating. And you've spent all this time and still not gotten any practice.

I promise you free4talk is 1000 times easier. Literally, within five minutes, you can find the site, create an account, log in, find a room and start talking to people. And the big difference between free4talk and these other conversation exchange sites is that it's based on chat rooms. And that makes it super, super easy.

I've been logging in off-and-on over the past couple of weeks and giving it a try. And the good news for all of you who are listening who are learning English, is that English is by far the most popular language. Every time that I've logged in there's been at least 40 different chat rooms. Sometimes there's been close to 100 different chat rooms of learners all over the world, people just like you who are on there to practice their English.

So I hope this is getting you excited. And that you're thinking "Yeah, cool. I want to go try it." So here's what you're going to need if you want to try it. All you need is a computer with a mic. Or you can also use an Android phone or an iPhone. And you're going to need a Google account because that's how you log in. I think the site is actually based on the same engine that drives Google Hangouts. So you can't use it if you don't have a Google account.

I won't bore you by explaining every detail about how you log in and create your account and all that.

Here comes part 2 of Lori and Will's discussion about A.I. and automation. If you enjoy these podcasts, please take a moment and rate or review. You can find the full transcript at https://www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

TRANSCRIPT PREVIEW

Lori: I heard that...I think it's Pizza Hut already has... or no... Domino's is already experimenting with robot pizza delivery vehicles. Yeah. I mean, this this is happening now.

Will: Well, you know, a main...I've been talking about this whole automation thing....oh, by the way, jot this down. If you've never seen it. There's a, there's a short 15-minute video on YouTube called Humans Need not Apply. And it puts the entire conversation and frames it into a perfect, digestible, understandable video that explains automation for anybody who's interested and doesn't have, you know, hours of time to spend on the topic.

Lori: Oh yeah, great, thanks!

Will: So jot that down. Yep, no problem.

Lori: Done.

Will: But Amazon, which everybody knows who Amazon is, the company, they did, they did something about maybe six months ago or so. They implemented a grocery store that had no cashiers, it was set up with turnstiles that using your mobile device, you would log in before you entered the store. You would get whatever you needed at the market, groceries, whatever you needed, and you would leave, you wouldn't stand in a line you would just walk through the turnstile and be automatically charged to your account. And I remember when Amazon did this I kind of freaked out a little bit because I, I said, you know, I sounded like the crazy preacher man running down the hill, I said to anybody I'd ever spoken to the topic about, they're testing a patent for this type of framework to be rolled out on a larger scale to the supermarket industry. And in the past week, Amazon has purchased Whole Foods and I am positive that it is connected to their concept of implementing this...you know, cashierless...you know, turnstile, just walk in and walk out, fully automated, market shopping experience.

Lori: Wow, I ....Oh, my goodness. I didn't know that they had bought Whole Foods.

Will: Yep. In the past week. I lost my mind when I read it.

Lori: Wow. Wow. I mean, it's something like that, I mean, a lot of people would lose their jobs or you know, the the poor cashiers. But at the same time, it sounds like a nice shopping experience, that you just walk in, get your things and walk out and everything is taken care of...I ...provided that it's all accurately...that you're accurately charged for your items.

Will: Yes. Of course, and it's a perfect...it's a perfect example of "If it works for the consumer..." which it sounds like that's a no brainer. And there...if the quarterly numbers come out for Whole Foods, and they see massive profits as a result of not having to carry those salaries and that that level of overhead as a result of employing humans, then it'll also make sense from a business perspective. And we will inevitably start to see the shift into the direction of automation. When it works for people and it works for businesses and the governments are scrambling around trying to figure out what to do with all of these, you know, unemployed unemployable people. It almost like a dirty word, unemployable. You're unemployable.

Lori: Yeah. But it really depends on how, you know, what is going to happen with society as this, you know, as these changes start taking place, because the point that that...remind me of what his name was. Do you remember the name of the guy who made this this video about the rise of AI?

Will: Aaaah....

Lori: I can't remember his name. Well, in any case, the point he made was that if these things do happen, we could if things go well, and if we plan properly, we could end up with a society where all we humans are doing is developing ourselves, learning new things.

Will: Exactly.

Lori: You know, just basically living a life of...that...

A study predicts that all human tasks could be automated in the next 30 years. And that all human jobs might be replaced within the next 100 years or so. Holy crap! What will we do when the robots take over? A.I. is coming. The robots are coming. But are we ready?

In this Real English conversations podcast from Better at English, Lori and her American friend Will talk about their questions and concerns about the rise of A.I. (Artificial intelligence) and the automation of human labor. You can find the full transcript in my archive of English conversation transcripts for language learners.

Additional resources and supplementary material
Humans need not apply
Video about how automation and A.I. will affect the job market for humans
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Pq-S557XQU
Robots will beat humans at every task
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/06/this-is-when-robots-will-start-beating-humans-at-every-task-ae5ecd71-5e8e-44ba-87cd-a962c2aa99c2
Traffic death statistics
https://www.cdc.gov/injury/features/global-road-safety/index.html
Dirty, Dirty robots.
Funny (but still disturbing) video about A.I. from comedian Lee Camp
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HyfxP6ZyNtw
Link to original Yale / Oxford study about A.I.
This is for learners of academic English. People in the videos about A.I. summarize findings from this study. This is the actual academic study for comparison.
https://arxiv.org/pdf/1705.08807.pdf
Elon musk on the Joe Rogan podcast, talking about A.I.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ra3fv8gl6NE
Elon Musk's talk at SXSW
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-Osn1gMNtw
Ted talk with neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8nt3edWLgIg
Sam Harris on the Joe Rogan Podcast
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BChxQHyFIOI&t=1487s
TED talk by Peter Haas A robot designer who is afraid of robots
The Real Reason to be Afraid of Artificial Intelligence
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRzBk_KuIaM
How frightened should be be of A.I.?
Article in the New Yorker, free, with full text and audio so you can read along as you listen.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2018/05/14/how-frightened-should-we-be-of-ai
Video about delivery robots
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ujzjZuhE92g

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from better at English dot com. This little update is just to let you know that new Real English Conversations are coming. I know you love the conversations, and I do love making them for you, but they are quite a lot of work, let me tell you! In fact, I just invested in some fancy new recording equipment that’s going to make it much easier for me to record and transcribe the conversations in the future. Because hey, let’s face it, what good is a conversation episode with out a transcript that you can use to learn from?

The first new conversation is coming in the next couple of days, and I’m letting you know in advance because I think you’ll get more benefit from the conversation if you can familiarize yourself with the general topic before you listen.

“Hey Lori, what’s the topic?”

Oh yeah, what’s the topic?

You’ll be hearing me and an American friend talk about AI, or artificial intelligence, and the automation of human labor. Yes, the robots are coming and – whether we like it or not – a lot of the work that humans are doing now, a lot of our jobs, our skills, will be replaced by machines and artificial intelligence. How are we going to deal with that as a society? Where will we find our sense of value and purpose when we don’t have to work anymore? And how will we make a living in the first place? How will we put a roof over our heads and put food on the table? These are some of the things you’ll hear us discuss.

You won't think I'm so cute when I take your job.

And in the conversation we mention some videos and other things that we’ve seen online. And that’s not so fun for you if you haven’t seen the video yourself and have no idea what we're talking about. So I’ve put the links to these in the show notes for this episode, and if you check out the background material in advance, you’ll be on the same page with us as you listen to the conversation. You won’t be left in the dark, scratching your head, when you hear us mention the videos. So I highly encourage you to take the next couple of days and get familiar with some of these materials so you’ll get more out of the conversation when I post it next time.

That’s all for this time...I’ll see you soon with a brand new, fresh, juicy, delightful and delicious real English conversation. Unless I’m replaced by a robot before then. Oh, wait. How do you know I’m not already a robot now...seriously, how would you know? Woo! Scary question.

Anyway, as always, you can find me at www.betteratenglish.com if you want to leave a comment, send an email, or leave me a voice message. I love getting voice messages from you so I can hear you show off your beautiful English. You can do all of that from my website. Until next time, here’s wishing you an inspired and productive day. Bye for now.

SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL FOR PRE-LISTENING
Funny (but still disturbing) video about AI by a comedian
Dirty Dirty Robots

Facts, figures and big questions about what will happen when machines and AI take over our jobs
Humans need not apply

Article and short video about some predictions related to Artificial Intelligence and automation
This is when robots will start beating humans at every task

For learners of academic English - here is the original study by researchers at Oxford and Yale. This is the study that the people in the videos talk about.
When will AI exceed human performance?

Hey there English learners, Lori here, your teacher from BetterAtEnglish.com. I've got a different type of episode here for you today. I'm gonna go through some American English slang expressions, some really common ones that you hear all the time if you're watching American English sitcoms or dramas on TV or Netflix.

They're ones that have been in use for quite a few years, and that you hear people in a wide range of ages using. So it's not just super new ones that are just used by teenagers and younger people. They're a lot more, I think, general and for me that means there are a lot more useful. So I hope that you will enjoy this episode.

It's a bit scary for me because it's different from what I normally give you. But, you know, when I think about it, I'm always encouraging you to try new things with your English learning and to risk embarrassment, to risk failure. So all I can do is try to lead by example and hope that you enjoy this episode.

The expressions we're going to look at are:
- Oh my god
- that sucks
- tell me about it
- to bomb, and
= bummer / bummed / to bum someone out

You can find the full transcript for this episode at https://www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts

If you benefit from this episode, please consider leaving a review (or at least some stars) :-)

The data is clear: some English grammar rules are stupid.

Is it ever OK to make a grammar "mistake" on purpose? Is it ever OK to know a grammar rule and break it anyway, even when you know that some people will strongly disapprove?

In this episode I talk about English grammar rules that (I and many people think) are stupid, and discuss whether or not it's OK to break them. You'll also hear a short extract from a podcast by Scott Adams, a well known cartoonist and professional writer, talking about breaking a grammar rule on purpose. His opinion might surprise you! And you'll also learn the (somewhat vulgar and offensive) slang term douchebag, and hear a really great example of how it's used in context.

“Hey Lori, what’s a douchebag?" I hear you asking. Listen to the episode and find out!

If you enjoy the show it would totally make my day if you could leave a review or at least some stars on Apple Podcasts or Spotify or basically, anywhere you can leave a review. I’m not picky! It’s an easy thing you can do that would mean the world to me.

You can find the full transcript of this episode online and as a downloadable PDF at https://www.betteratenglish.com/045-stupid-english-grammar-rules-transcript

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Better at English dot com.

It's story time here today, something I don't think I've done here on the podcast before. I'm going to use natural English, but will try to speak just a little more carefully than I normally would, so that more people can follow along.

You can find the full transcript of everything I say on my website: www.betteratenglish.com/transcripts

Today I've been thinking about mistakes, mainly how the fear of making mistakes in English really holds some learners back. Believe me, I know how this feels. I've made plenty of embarrassing mistakes myself in my target languages. Luckily, most of the time I'm able to just laugh them off, and they don't really get me into trouble. But sometimes mistakes lead to a total breakdown of communication. And that's no fun at all.
I thought you might like to hear about one of my more memorable mistakes, a mistake that actually caused a real problem and made me feel super embarrassed. It happened over 30 years ago, (yes, I'm that old) but it taught me such an important lesson about language learning that I still remember it to this day.

So let me take you back over thirty years, to my first year living in Sweden. I think I'd been living there for about nine months when this happened. I'd been trying to learn Swedish since I arrived, and by then I was able to understand a fair amount. I think I could speak without too much difficulty about general, everyday things. I still made tons of mistakes, for sure, but they didn't really cause problems. That is, until this one particular day.

Here's the situation: I needed to make a doctor's appointment for some kind of check-up. I can't remember what it was for; I just remember that it wasn't for anything urgent. It was early in April, maybe April third or fourth. I picked up the phone and called the doctor's office to make an appointment. It was scary. I'd never made a phone call like that in Swedish before. I was worried that I would embarrass myself by making terrible mistakes or just not understanding, and that I would end up having to try to do it in English. Most people in Sweden speak English, which is one of the reasons I wasn't learning faster. But I was determined to make this appointment in Swedish, gosh darn it!

Despite my worries, it seemed to go well. The doctors' assistant answered, and I was able to explain what I needed and make an appointment for April 18th at 9 a.m., that's nine o'clock in the morning. I hung up feeling pretty proud of myself: this was the first time I'd ever made a phone call like this in Swedish -- calling a total stranger to make an appointment -- and I didn't have to use any English at all. It felt like a real sign of progress!

I got out my calendar, found April 18th and wrote: Dr's appointment, 9 am. I was a bit annoyed that I would have to wait two weeks for my appointment, but like I said, it wasn't urgent. I closed my calendar and went on with my day, feeling very pleased with myself about my successful phone call in Swedish.

Now....Fast forward to 3 or 4 days later, April 8th just after 9 am. I was at home in my little apartment, drinking coffee and getting ready to go to the gym when the phone rang. I picked up the phone, hoping that it would be something nice -- maybe a friend calling to find out if we could do something fun that day, I don't know. But it wasn't. It was someone from the doctor's office, a woman who sounded mildly annoyed, calling to find out why I hadn't shown up for my appointment.

That was a shock to me, because I thought my appointment was not for another 10 days, on the 18th. I couldn't imagine that I'd written down the wrong day by mistake. "Are you sure?" I asked her. "I thought it was on the 18th...that's almost two weeks from now." And then it hit me: today was the 8th. The words for eighth and eighteenth sound quite similar in Swedish if, like me at the time,

Introduction
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. Last week I shared the first part of a cool conversation I had with Dr. BJ Fogg, all about making the most of your motivation. Today you’ll be hearing part two, the final part of this conversation. If you missed the first part, make sure to go back and listen to part one before you listen to part two.

At the end of part one, BJ was telling me about his goal to get better at writing neatly on a whiteboard. He knew that he needed to practice a lot if he wanted to improve, so he wanted to make it as easy as possible to practice every day. In this part of the conversation, you’ll hear what he did to change his environment to make practicing easy, even on days when his motivation is low. You’ll also hear about how his practice routine is working for him.

As always, you can find the full transcript of this conversation, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

Are you ready for the conversation? Let’s go!

Conversation transcript
BJ: One of the habits I’m doing right now is, I’m practicing whiteboarding. I’m practicing with markers writing on a whiteboard. You know, like teachers do.

Lori: Right.

BJ: And I want my handwriting to get much, much better and so, I’m practicing every day. But anyway, what I did was I went out and I got some marker paper, I got a bunch of markers, I got different whiteboards so I have whiteboards in different parts of my house. I have the marker paper, I have markers, I have a marker in my bathroom, one in my sun room, I have a whole set in my office, I have a whole set in my other office. In other words, I made it really, really easy to practice writing with markers by getting all the materials and getting everything set up. And I did that when I was in a period of high motivation. So now, it’s really easy just to pick up a marker and practice. I don’t have to be super motivated.

Lori: Right. And– and you can tell yourself that, you know, “You have all your materials. It’s all easy right at hand.” You could even tell yourself, “I’m just going to write one sentence. That’s all I feel like doing right now and —

BJ: Yeah. In fact, just before your call, that’s what I did. I was sitting down and I was going to read but I was like, “No, no. I’m just going to, like, get out the marker board and write one sentence.” And I ended up filling up the entire marker board because I thought, “Oh, this is kind of fun. I’m going to keep going.”

Lori: Yeah —

BJ: And then, you called.

Lori: Have– have you — oh, I’m sorry to interrupt your practice…
[laughs]

BJ: [crosstalk] No, I was expecting your call.

Lori: …while you were on a roll. But yeah, and I guess…how’s your writing? Has it been improving? It must be improving.

BJ: Oh my gosh, it’s so much better.

Lori: And that —

BJ: Yeah.

Lori: Because I can imagine when you start seeing that your efforts are paying off, that that makes it more likely that you’re going to pick up those pens and do your practicing.

BJ: Yeah, and I– I think there are some behaviors or skills where it becomes clear pretty quickly — your progress. And then there are some, at least outcomes, where it’s harder to measure like, “Wow, am I really reducing my stress? Am I really getting healthier? Am I really...,” you know, whereas the whiteboarding — and then, I practice guitar every day…
Lori: Oh! Cool.

BJ: …and– and other things. Yeah, but in those two cases, it’s very clear that you’re getting better. It’s just obvious that you’re getting better. And the writing is one that I may have other people join me in because…and then take pictures before and after because it’s– it’s quite dramatic.
Lori: I...yeah, I can imagine if you practice. I mean, I haven’t practiced writing really since I was a kid; and learning to write and then, you know, you get your hand style and you think that that’s sort of what you’r...

Introduction
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 5 of my conversation with Kyla. This is the final part of our conversation about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In the previous episode we talked about dealing with distractions and interruptions when you're trying to work. This time we talk about one of the biggest interrupters of all: email. We also talk about ways to structure your day to make it easier to do important things.

If you want to read along as you listen, you can download the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

After the conversation I'll be back with three questions you can use for speaking practice. Oh, and one final note: I've marked this episode as explicit because near the end of the conversation I say a couple of mildly vulgar words. They're very common slang words that you hear all the time on TV, but I'm playing it safe and warning you anyway. You never know what someone might find offensive!

OK, let's get on with the conversation!
Real English Conversation Transcript
Kyla: I was going to say, I guess, one drawback about the book actually is that so much of it is, there's not— there's not very many current contemporary people in it to ask about their rituals. It's, yeah, an awful lot of people from the last century before, before internet and so it would be— it would be nice to find, you know, the daily rituals of more people living now with the different forms of communication that we have now.

Lori: Right.

Kyla: Because of course there were several people that would have, you know, they'd have their hour in which they would make their phone calls to their agents or their phone calls to newspapers or, you know, when it was still there. Because you still had the communication that was required with the— the rest of the world. But I think it was probably much easier to schedule, "Okay, this is the time that I'm going to be on the telephone because this is when I have access to a telephone or..."

Lori: Right.

Kyla: You know, "This is the time of day when I sit and write my letters and read my letters," which there's no reason why we can't do that now but I think it's easier when you have a physical letter that you can put in a pile on the— on the bedside table or the coffee table and...

Lori: Right. And it's— it's also...there's a limit there, you know. It's self-limiting. You see, "Okay, I have five letters I have to answer..."

Kyla: That's right.

Overwhelmed by the endless stream of emailLori: ...and you know that it's not like today with email where at any second, you can get more added to that pile and you never know when you're going to get one.

Kyla: That's— that's right. You're sitting there answering, it's like, "I have five emails to respond to," and by the time you're done, there's five more. [laughs]

Lori: Exactly. Or you send your answers and then the person replies right away with still more questions, and it never ends.

Kyla: Yeah.

Lori: So there— there was more of a sense of, like, these finite chunks of work that you could do in a given period than— than now where the boundaries between work and not work and yeah, it's just getting fuzzier and fuzzier all the time, I think.

Kyla: That's right. Yeah.

Lori: But I agree. I agree with you that it would be great to hear some examples or read some examples of people living in our time dealing with the— the kind of problems we're dealing with every day. Yeah, very cool. Let me see. Was there something else? I guess my— my...I don't know if it would be my final question, but one question that I have for you is, if you have picked up anything from the book that you have started to apply to your own life, or that has somehow changed the way you approach getting your creative work done or your productive work done?

Introduction
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 4 of my conversation with Kyla. Up until now we've been talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. But in this part of the conversation we digress [go off topic] and talk about dealing with distractions and interruptions when we're trying to work. That's one of the fun things about conversations: you never know where they are going to go!

What kind of things do you find distracting when you are trying to work or study? How do you feel when you get interrupted when you're trying to concentrate? Do you think you have anything in common with Kyla and me? Listen to the conversation and find out!

If you want to read along as you listen, you can download the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

After the conversation I'll be back with three questions you can use for speaking practice.

OK, let's get on with the conversation!

Conversation transcript

Lori: Yeah, it's, I think, really important. I found that it kind of made me feel a little bit better about myself because I find that if I'm going to sit down and do something, maybe not necessarily– necessarily creative, but that really requires my full attention and concentration, I cannot handle distractions and interruptions...

Kyla: Yeah, yeah.

Lori: ...at all.

Kyla: They've even done studies where, I think when you're trying to do something, every distraction, it takes you about 15 minutes to get back...

Lori: Right.

Kyla: ...to what you were doing? Like, that's the amount of time it takes your brain to handle, "There's been a distraction! What was I doing before? Where was I? Oh yes, here we are..."

Lori: Yeah. It's –

Kyla: "...now we're going again." And so that, having that sort of place to make sure that no distractions bother you.

Lori: Yeah, it's really important. And I think nowadays, you know, people with families, and not to mention just our little devices going off and pinging us all the time. You know, it's– it's getting harder and harder to create that– that block of undisturbed, focused, uninterrupted time for yourself, I think.

Kyla: It is. It– it really is. And I was, you know – Google just had their...just released their news on their, sort of their new gadgets; the new Android, the new apps they're coming up with.

Lori: Okay.

Kyla: And one of the things they're doing is they're trying to integrate all of your electronic devices so that if somebody calls you on your phone, it will alert you on your laptop.

Lori: Nooo!

Kyla: And I was just like, "That's a terrible idea!" [laughs]

Lori: It's...I think it's a horrible idea.

Kyla: Like, in order to get anything done, you pretty much have to disconnect from the internet if it's not required for what you're doing. [laughs]

Image courtesy of Wilengebroed on flickr.comLori: Yeah, totally. And you know, I've really come full circle when it comes to things like the internet and being connected in social media. I mean, in the beginning back in, well let's say, 10 years ago when it was still fresh and new and people were talking about web 2.0., it was this fantastic thing.

And now I find, oh my god, I just, I don't want all that distraction and all those little tiny calls to my attention throughout the day that I've almost become anti- [laughs] internet. Which is, I mean, there's some kind of irony there because I also am running a website, and of course I want people to look at my website and listen to the podcasts. So it's kind of a, um – yeah, almost hypocritical but...

Kyla: No, I'm the same. I mean, for...and I'm sort of like, I'm not a...I'm a great– I'm a great social person in person but I'm not– I'm not entirely sold on this social networking business. But I'm a musician! [laughs] So...

Lori: Yeah.

Introduction
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 3 of my conversation with Kyla. We are talking about the book Daily Rituals by Mason Currey. In this part we talk about the routines and practices that many creative people have in common.

Now before you listen I have to warn you: this is a particularly challenging conversation. Here is why: because both Kyla and I read the book, we have a lot of shared information in our heads. When speakers have a lot of shared information, they often leave out details. They know that the other person already knows the information, so they don't have to say it.

If only one of us had read the book, this conversation would have been very different. We would have had to do a lot more explaining, and mention a lot more specific details.

What does all that mean for you? As you are listening, don't worry too much if some things are unclear, or if you feel that you are missing information. To help you out, I have marked the particularly challenging parts in colored text in the transcript. And at the end of the transcript, I've included a short quote from the book so you can read the part we are talking about.

If you want to read along as you listen, you can download the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

After the conversation I'll be back with five questions you can use for speaking practice.

OK, let's get on with the conversation!

Conversation transcript
Kyla: That's right, exactly. And the amount...it seems a real recurring theme in the book is three hours. The amount of people that did, that worked for three hours a day that got all their...even – even the ones that didn't have jobs that had their time completely open, a lot of them seemed to work for three hours. And the rest of the time would be, you know, visiting and going for long walks and...

Lori: Yeah, that was –

Kyla: ...having luxurious dinners.

Lori: That was another really striking one – the role of walking.

Kyla: Yes.

Beethoven was one of the many creative people whose daily routine involved strong coffee.Lori: Because you had these people, like you say, they would work their stretch of – of three or four hours. I think– I think Beethoven is an example of this. He would– he would work, get up in the morning, drink his coffee. I think he was the one who counted the [coffee] beans. [laughs]

Kyla: He counted the beans! Yeah. [laughs]

Lori: How many was it in each cup?

Kyla: 60 or something?

Lori: Yeah.

Kyla: Was it 60? [laughs]

Lori: That sounds right. Yeah, he measured up precisely 60 beans for his coffee and would work. And then he would take these long, vigorous walks armed with note paper to jot down ideas, I guess. And I think it was also Beethoven who would, during his work periods when he would feel stuck, he would get up and go walk outside for a little bit and found that , kind of, unlocked his creativity.

Download the transcript for the rest of this Real English conversation, the vocabulary lesson and bonus discussion questions for speaking practice.

Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear part 2 of my conversation with Kyla. We're discussing a book that we both really liked. It's called Daily Rituals, by Mason Currey.

The book describes the daily routines and habits of 161 creative people, people like writers, painters, musicians, philosophers, and scientists. Now, while I love the book, I don't recommend it for English learners at lower levels. This is because it has a lot of quotations from sources that are very old, and some of that language is very difficult. But if you are an upper-intermediate to advanced learner of English who needs to read English literature from different periods, it might be a great place to start. The chapters are very short — sometimes only a half a page. That means you can have the satisfaction of finishing a chapter without having to spend too much time. And it's easier to do deep language analysis and study if the text is not too long.

Right then...in this conversation you'll hear a lot of American English idiomatic expressions and a bit of slang. There are also many examples of a politeness strategy called "hedging." Remember, this was the first time Kyla and I ever spoke, so we were being careful not to be too direct. Listen particularly for language like "kind of," "sort of," and "I think." Hedges like these keep us from sounding to direct or firm in our opinions.

As always, you can find the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

OK, here comes the conversation!

CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT
Kyla: Well, I was just going to say, that book came out of blog posts, didn't it? Like, was he blogging? [note: you can find the original blog here]

Lori: I believe the story is, he's – he's a...he's actually a published author; quite a prolific author, I think, in– in, like, magazines and things like that. And he did have this blog that, I guess, started out just as some kind of personal interest.

Kyla: Right.

Lori: And then someone got in touch with him saying, "Hey, do you...this would make a really cool book," and so he did the extra work too to turn it into a book. And I'm glad he did because it's really fascinating.

Kyla: Yeah. [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Really interesting.

Kyla: It is —

Lori: Um...

Kyla: Well, it's — oh, you go ahead.

Lori: No, no. Go ahead.

Kyla: I was– I was just going to say, it actually kind of makes me really..."Why wasn't I a writer?! It seems like they have it so easy!" [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Is that based on– on reading about the habits of writers in the books or the book, I'm —

Kyla: Yes. Yeah, exactly. That was...by – by the end of it, it was just like, yeah.

Lori: That's funny you had that reaction because I actually thought that writing seemed really, really freaking hard.

Kyla: Oh, yeah. [laughs]

Lori: [laughs] Like, really hard. I guess, some of the things that– that struck me that all the things that the writers do to try to make it easier on themselves, like, I really [laughs] — one thing, I can't remember which person it was, but there was someone who was, like, totally taking Benzedrine which is, I guess, apparently, Adderall.

Kyla: Right. [laughs]

Lori: And after reading that passage, I was like, "Hey man! I want to get me some of that stuff! [laughs] How can I...that's my problem too! I can't focus. I can't concentrate. Like, sign me up!" [laughs] And coffee, as well. I was surprised at how many people really depended on stimulants like coffee.

Kyla: Yeah. And it seems like, every, like, pretty much every ritual was like, "Well, I have my coffee," and then, like — Oh, who is that? Like, the guy that would have...maybe it was, who would have, like, I don't know. His butler had to choose the coffee each day and then justify his choice. Like, "This is —

Lori: Oh,

INTRODUCTION
Hi English learners! Lori here, your teacher from Betteratenglish.com. In this episode of Real English Conversations, you'll hear me talking to Kyla, a fellow musician. We met up to talk about a book that we both really like. It's called Daily Rituals, and was written by Mason Currey.

But as it turned out, Kyla and I had a lot more to talk about than the book. In fact, we didn't even start talking about the book until several minutes into the conversation. So you'll have to wait until part two for that. In this first part, you'll hear us breaking the ice by talking about guitars and practicing and other things we have in common. This was a normal thing to do because it was the first time we ever spoke to each other.

You'll be hearing lot of informal American English, including tons of phrasal verbs. I think the best way to really learn phrasal verbs is in context, so I've highlighted most of them for you in the transcript, along with the other vocabulary.

As always, you can find the full transcript, including a bonus vocabulary lesson at betteratenglish.com/transcripts.

OK, let's get this conversation started!

CONVERSATION TRANSCRIPT

Lori: Okay, great. Yeah! It was really, really cool that you– you stepped up to the plate and got in touch about– about talking about this book.

Kyla: Good. Yeah! It's kind of...it's a– it's a book that I– I've read. I have...I own a copy. And coming up with rituals, I'm always looking for better ways to work and better ways to be creative, so it's a...yeah. It's a – when I saw your post, I was like, "Oh! I love that book!" [laughs]

Lori: Oh! Yeah, great! Yeah, at that point, I don't even think I'd read more than, like, a quarter of it, and I was like, "Oh! This is such a cool book! I really want to talk to somebody about it."

Kyla: Excellent.

Lori: So yeah, but before we get into that, tell me a little bit more about what you're doing with guitar.

Kyla: Well, I'm a...I was sort of trained as a classical guitarist as a kid and moved on, started playing electric in, like, some folk rock band in, you know, like, 15 years ago and just sort of...I've always been listening to metal so I think it was sort of natural that I got into playing– into playing metal. Now I play in a really, really proggy sort of a death metal band –

Lori: Oh wow.

Kyla: – called Molt. And we, after much strife, finally released an album a couple of years ago. But yeah, I mean, I'm always– I'm always striving to sort of streamline how I practice because I've always got, you know – actually, I just quit a job about a month ago to sort of start to...now I'm teaching myself Java and Python, and I'm working on...I'm actually working on writing an app to generate guitar practice exercises.

Watch the video version with CC subtitles
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTUynHNPNP8

Lori: Oh!

Kyla: But yeah, so I'm just always– I'm always, you know, looking for ways to work, looking for ways to fit my practice time in the continual quest for speed. [laughs] I do have to thank you for your little...your post about using a 1-minute timer.

Lori: Oh yeah!

Kyla: I do that every day. That's– [laughs] that's really become– that's really become a part of my– my practice regimen.

Lori: Oh, super! I'm glad that was useful.

Kyla: Yeah, that was– that was extraordinarily useful. [laughs]

Lori: Yeah, it's – it's one of the things about playing guitar if you're trying to achieve, yeah, higher than average level of technical mastery is that – you find that unless you're like one of these freaky people who seem to be just super, super gifted, it takes an inordinate amount of practice.

Kyla: Yeah. Yeah, it's...and focused, focused practice.

Lori: Yeah, and not just kind of going over the scales or the things that you like to do that are easy for you. You have to sort of get into the edges, and push yourself into the areas where you're not comfortable and where you start fee...