- Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com and welcome to this English lesson where you're going to listen
to a conversation about... - Fall, or the season of autumn. - Well done.
(both laughing) - So, yeah. - We had a practice run. - We did. So, this is a conversation where you're going to just
listen to natural English. So, you can do this wherever you're from and feel free to go to the description to look up some of the key phrases, or if you just want to listen along and get some exposure to
English, that's great too. So yeah, we're gonna discuss fall today. We've already talked about
summer and winter in the past, and it's just about to go
into fall here in the US. This is your favorite season. - It's my, well, one
of my favorite seasons. I actually really like the
transition from summer to fall. - Is that what's happening right now? - Yes, yes. This is my optimal season. - Right, so the transition to
change from summer to fall. And summer has been very hot
this year, or at times it has. Where it's been about 90
degrees, high humidity. Which means it's difficult to
go out and do stuff outside unless you're at a pool or
in the shade or by a river. - That's right.
- Yeah. - So, those are the three
things that we like to do. Shady hikes, going to
visit rivers and waterfalls and a lot of time at the pool. - Yeah, we spent a lot of
time at the pool this summer. And then fall or autumn is
a lot easier to be outside. - Yes.
- Can you explain? - Yeah, I mean, I like
many things about fall that are pretty typical
for people to like. I like the transition to a cozier season. I like to pull out sweaters and long boots and to think about a few of
the warmer beverages and soups and things that are more
hearty and comforting. - Yeah, start making chilies again, which we like to eat, don't we? - Yeah. - When it's the summer, you
don't want to have a hot stove cooking something like a soup or a chili, especially over a long time. - Oh yeah, definitely not. And I like that. I also like this right now because we still have fruit and vegetables and flowers and green leaves, but it started to get a
little bit cooler at night. You can tell that the
seasons are about to change and the Equinox is coming up this month, which is the official start of fall. - What's the Equinox? - The Equinox is when you have equal hours of daylight and nighttime. And I think it's at the end of September. - Yeah, 22nd. - That sounds right. - Well, the fall starts on the 22nd. - Then that's the Equinox. - So, that's coming up pretty soon. Do you know where the
word fall originates from? - Can I make a guess
that's probably wrong? - Yeah, always.
- Okay. Is it from the leaves falling? - Well, that's probably where... Sorry, where it originated
from, as in which country. Have a little think. There's no wrong answers. - Is it from the UK? - Well, yeah, this is
the theory that I learned while I was doing a live lesson. Because there's still parts of the UK that call it fall. And there's a great article where it looks at word usage
from the 1950s and now, and how things have changed. For example, the TH sound
is going away in London. - Yeah, "nuffing" instead of nothing. So, that TH sound's going
away and you can see on a map where it originates from the
sound of the F, which is London and how it spread it out
to the rest of the country. But in the '50s, people
were still saying fall in certain parts of the UK. And the theory is that they had both terms when the US was colonized, but autumn won in the UK
and fall one in the US - I wonder about that because I think that
there are some phrases that are pretty common in
the US that you don't use or that sound old-fashioned to you. And then there are some phrases, particularly in the north of England. Like sometimes you still say
thee and thou for example, that to me... But we don't use articles. - That's true, but just
with the thee and the thou and similar words that to me, sound like they belong in history and the time of Shakespeare. And it's funny to me to hear people use it in everyday expressions. - Yeah, could you do an example
of a Northern expression? - No, I can't do an impression
of you, you know it. I want to be able to do
a good impression of you and I think in general, I
do do decent impressions, but your accent is very hard for me. - Yeah, it is. So, fall.
- Fall. - There's a massive crate. I think we've talked about this before. - Did you just say that
in an American accent? - Fall. - Oh my gosh. - I didn't, I said fall. - Oh. (both chuckling) - We try too. - Yeah, yeah. So, certain other things
come out, don't they? There's certain holidays as
well around fall which you love. - I do. - Do you want to talk
about those a little bit? - Yes. So, there's the Equinox, which we don't necessarily celebrate. Some traditions do. And then there's Halloween,
Dia de los Muertos and Thanksgiving. Love them all. - Yeah, and Thanksgiving is in fall, yeah. 'Cause we learned, do you
remember when winter starts? In our winter video and
everyone left a comment. Is it December?
- Oh no. - Was it 15th or 21st. - I didn't read the comments. - We've forgotten again. But yes, Thanksgiving is in fall as well. And that is probably the fall holiday in the sense of it comes from
other traditions of feast, the fall harvest and feasting when there's a good fall harvest. So, you have enough food for the winter to survive basically. And then you celebrate that fact. But Thanksgiving, obviously
has a different spin on it, which we won't go into because we made a video on Thanksgiving. - We did. - That was our first conversation. - Was it?
- Yeah. Long time ago. - Okay. - Yeah, it was like a
pilot episode that we did. So, I'll leave a link to that one. But let's start with Halloween. Halloween is huge in the US. I am always shocked every
year just by how big it is and how early people
have to get prepared for. And two things stand out for me. - Go ahead. - Firstly, when I suggested
that we don't give out candy, but we give out something else because everyone gives out candy and the kids go crazy over it. And what did you say? Do you remember? - No. - You said people will come
back and egg your house if you don't leave candy for people. - That might have been me
being a little dramatic. - Yeah. - I thought so, but at the same time kids would say, "What is this? Why are you giving me a
beef stick or some carrots or a pencil or some little toys?" - No, if you want to set up around the corner from our house, you can give away all of those things. - Because what it's like is... - You can be like the troll in the garden. Have some carrots. (both laughing) - Would you like some
carrots instead of candy? - No. Then we're known as the crazy British guy who gives out carrots. But that was before I really
understood everything. Before we had children
who could walk to houses and I really understood things. But it's crazy here. I can't describe it. It's so different because
it's just a mad rush. The children all have those little buckets and they go as quickly
as possible to houses. Get as much candy as possible and it's just this mad
rush for about an hour. It's exhausting to me. - Oh yeah. - But there's also fun
things as well for us. So, there's a neighborhood
that have parties, right? - I mean, trick or treating is fun. - Not for me, really. I like the part... - Go hand out your carrots. - Well, what I mean by that
is everyone dresses up, Parents, children. - Yes.
- Most parents. - Yes. - And it's hard to get an outfit in the week running up to Halloween because everything's sold out, which is why you often
do it six weeks before. - I try to come up with
the plan six weeks before. But I mean, I would love to take the time to make our costumes and you know, every year I just run
out of time a little bit, but I think that you can get so creative and do something really special. But the other year I was a sea witch and our daughter was a mermaid, but I had a plan to make
these tentacles out of tights. And I had a whole design with a head piece and a cape and my tentacles. And in the end, all I ended
up wearing were some tights that I never had time to stuff. So, they just kind of
hung around me and a wig. - I thought it looked okay. - It did, it looked okay
but my vision was like... - Which I mean, it looked good. - Yeah, oh, thank you. - It's all right.
- Yeah. - But it's a mad rush, though. - That's British for amazing. - Well, good. Good. Yeah, so it's just a mad rush and then Halloween is what
I wanted to say though, is they have block parties
with music and dancing and a really good atmosphere. So, that's the fun part for me, not just taking a child to a house, to another house, to another house and say, "Don't eat all now." And then they get home and they're tired, it's late, it's a school
night, a lot of times too. And sometimes it's been rainy and cold and they just want to eat the candy and then they get a sugar rush and then the next day at school, you know, as a former teacher, the day after Halloween
was the worst day to teach. - Or the day of Halloween, it depends. And I think that I've
changed my opinion on it now that I'm not actively teaching because when you're in the classroom, you're like just contain the chaos. The least fun that we
can have is what we want. That's what we're going for, we're going for calm, collected. And now that I'm not actively teaching, I'm like, "Go crazy, get sugar." - You can also just think they should just send the kids outside the day after Halloween to run it all off. - Yeah.
- Yeah. But I don't like that part. I do not like that part of it. - The chaos? - No, just the endless candy. All in the little plastic
wrappers, all small and... - Yeah.
- Yeah. But fun holiday, all in all. - And kind of, I think that
what's fun about it too, is that it's so kind of joyful and wild, but it's also a little bit dark. A lot of people will decorate their houses with really scary things
like gravestones and ghosts, witches and just the creepier the better. - Yeah. But the person who used
to live in the house that we live in now, it was known as the best
house in the neighborhood because they had all these decorations, but they didn't leave them
for us, the neighbor got them. So, then they put up all
these new decorations and we're getting there slowly. - Yeah. We haven't really gotten there. So, you can buy giant
inflatable decorations for every season almost. And people decorate for
the winter holidays, they'll decorate for Halloween and you can really decorate
your house and yard throughout the year,
but probably Halloween and the winter holidays
are the biggest ones. - Oh yeah, definitely. - But yeah, there was a
giant animatronic spider in our yard. - Wasn't there some
with a top hat as well. Like a giant thing. - A giant statue with a top hat. - Monster, I think.
- Oh yeah. See, we never got to see it, but everybody will come
and knock on our door which we have one Jack-o'-lantern. - We had the cobwebs. - Oh yeah, we had cobwebs. Did we ever hang them? - I think so, they
weren't very good though. They were small.
- No, they weren't. - Fall. I'm gonna do something now Where we're gonna talk about clothing but talk about the most important
aspect of fall clothing. And we'll both say it, no. Time out. We'll both say it on
three, it's not boots. But just think about a
concept with fall clothing. What's important? - I feel like this is a trap. - One, two, three, layers.
- Cozy. - Layers.
- Cozy layers. - (laughs) Cozy layers. - Everyone wins. - Which is, I guess that's
a collocation, right? Two words that go together naturally. - Yeah.
- Pack some cozy layers. Yeah, you need layers, right? Especially here in the mountains. It could be 75 degrees during the day and then as soon as the sun goes down, we've been out haven't we? And it goes dark earlier. But I just remember some
nights at Zillicoah, which is a brewery here and we're out and it's t-shirts on. And then within 10 minutes
you need a jacket, don't you? - Yeah, and also because
we're in the mountains, there are different elevations. So, we're near the Blue Ridge Parkway, which goes through these mountains and you can drive up to the
Parkway and drive 20 minutes, a half an hour and you'll
be at a different elevation and you'll need some cozy layers. - Yeah. It could be 20, 30
degrees difference, right? - Oh yeah. - Yeah, really big difference. - And even so, a lot of
people talk about fall color and we do live in an
area with a lot of trees that lose their leaves in
the winter, deciduous trees and before that they turn
really vibrant colors. Oranges, reds.
- Best in the world here. - Yeah, so good. - People say it's New England. What do they know up there? - I think we get good fall
color similar to New England. - We can experience it
over two to three weeks because it starts early
or mid October, I think. Right at the higher elevations. - I think it might
actually be late September. - Oh, is it early October? - Early October. It's not September. I'm just being silly. But no, there's actually
a map that tells you. They'll say, "All right, this year is gonna be early October
at the higher elevations." And then at the lower elevations, it will say late October
when it's at peak. What are they called? The people who come here. - Leaf peepers, - Is it really leaf peepers? Are you sure? - I'm sure. Like to peep? - Like to look. - To look. - Yeah, usually peeping is kind of a... - Creepy.
- Creepy word. - But yeah, people come to
our area for the weekend and the parkway is packed, isn't it? It's really busy, this famous road where you can see the colors
and you can see it for miles and you have a different variety of color. It's really nice. - And people go very slowly. - And all the overlooks, the
park and you can't park there. But yeah, people come here, what were they called again, fall peepers? - Leaf peepers. - Leaf peepers. Are you a leaf peeper? - Yeah. I am, are you? - I guess so. And then what happens
when the leaves fall? We'll say on three. One two, three. One, two, three, bag 'em up.
We'll put them in compost. - Well, you do, right? - I mean, yeah. Rake 'em, first. Yeah, bag 'em up. I wasn't gonna get there. - Well, yeah, you need to think on your feet a little bit more. But yeah, so, this is when you have to do a lot of, we call it
gardening, but yard work here. So, you rake up the leaves,
make a pile, jump in it. Dogs and children jump in the leaves. Then a lot of people put them in bags and then the city will come
and collect them in trucks. Or you can use them as compost. Our compost, did we use it this year? Did you use any? - Nope. - Well, we'll make sure
we use it next year. But yeah, we have a little compost bin and then it's another good time to mulch, to prune your trees and bushes, right? But I like doing it in fall
because it's a lot cooler. - Yeah. - Summer yard work's brutal. - Mosquitoes. - Yeah, bees. - Bees. - The sun. - The humidity.
- Humidity. - So, it's nice, the air right now, it's a little bit
crisper, it's more crisp. And there's a little bit of
a chill in the air at night. - Yeah, chill in the air. What do I say when I come outside and there's a chill in the
air and it's not humid? - When did this become a quiz? Bag 'em up. - I say it's lovely. It's lovely upside. - "Oh, it's lovely." - Yeah, so if it's lovely outside, it means it's a good temperature. - Yeah.
- Yeah. So, it's a good time to do that, to exercise, I love
playing soccer in the fall. It's just the perfect
time of year to do it, but the mornings can be
very crisp, very cool. Sometimes you can get a little
bit of frost in the fall. Because yeah, for gardening,
you need to know that as well, when it might freeze. And then any other things
that you like about fall? Pumpkin spice. - I know, I was going to say I have one. Well, I have one pumpkin
spice latte every fall. - Just one? - I know, just one. - You've already had one. Exactly, I'm done. - Are you not gonna have another? - I'm full on fall. - Why do you do that? - If I have another one, it'll be a bonus. - But why do you only have one? Because it doesn't taste very good. But you just want to have that whole... Ride the bandwagon of pumpkin spice. Is that why? - It is a genuinely good flavor? - But why do you only have one? - I don't know 'cause I'm worried that
it could become a habit. - Yeah, it could. - I could just become a complete monster. - Do you remember last
year when you brought back so many pumpkin spiced
items from Trader Joe's? - I'm gonna do that... Some of them were better than others. Some of them are better
than others, but I do. In general, I like that blend of spices. - I think it's probably
weighted to 80% female, 20% male on who buys pumpkin spice lattes. Maybe higher.
- So, maybe pumpkin spice culture has become gendered, but I truly believe
that the flavor profile, everyone can enjoy it. If you like a little cinnamon
and nutmeg in your life, you can enjoy it, it's okay. - Is that what it is? - Yeah. - Is there nothing else in it? - Maybe like a pinch of cloves. - So, yeah, these different spices. Yeah.
- Yeah. - Yeah, and then our birthdays
are in fall which we like. - We do like that. - Yeah, I remember
celebrating my birthday here and it was really warm. And I said I've never had a warm sunny day on my birthday in my life. But it can be hit or miss. It could be cold near the end of October. - It can be. I think that there's still some leaves on the trees, which is so nice because
when I was growing up, I grew up in a more northern state. And so, by the time
that my birthday arrived near the end of October,
it was always gray. - Yeah, oh, in the UK, October. - It's the rainy season, isn't it? - The leaves aren't very
colorful they're just brown. All brown. And then they fall and they
get really wet straight away. But sometimes the weather
can ruin it, can't it? - Yeah, I think if it's too... It has to do with the dry and wetness. I think it has to be somewhat perfect. 'Cause if it's too dry too early, all the leaves turn
brown and fall off early. And if it doesn't dry out, I don't know. - What are those things? There has to be some
temperature, humidity. 'Cause if it rained and
it was windy for a week, I imagine a lot of the
leaves would just fall. "So, we're not gonna
turn color this year." - "We're out." - "Yeah, this is perfect
for us to disintegrate and turn into rich soil." Or compost.
- Compost. - "Let's go in a bag." Okay, well, I hope you've
enjoyed this lesson. I think we should end it there. Because we've done a Thanksgiving lesson. - Yes.
- Yeah. And you should definitely go and watch the summer, Thanksgiving and the winter conversations
after this one. Yeah, and then be sure
to go to the description to look at some of the key
phrases from this lesson, what else should they do? Case question. - Oh, my question. What is your favorite fall ritual? So, it could be a food
or an item of clothing or something that you do outside, but to celebrate the changing seasons. - And do you have this season in terms of the temperature. In case mind is blown. I'm just thinking of Costa Rica. Doesn't really change that
much except for rainy season. But yeah, and the southern hemisphere. - They're going into their spring. - Yeah, it's about to be spring. Okay, so yeah, just like if you have fall or what are the seasons you
celebrate the most there? And yeah, click the like button,
subscribe if you are new. And as always, yeah, check
out the other lessons. One more thing, one more thing. - One more thing. We actually chose this topic based on somebody recommending
that we talk about seasons. And so, if there are other topics that you're interested
in us talking about, we'd love to know. - Yeah, and expand on it too. So say, "Oh, we'd love to know about..." Someone said hospitals, right. So, it's like, "Talk about a typical hospital experience for a
surgery or something like that." - Okay, yeah. Oh yeah, the more specific the better. - Yeah, it just helps us think about it a bit more, doesn't it? - Yeah.
- Yeah. Okay, thanks again. Speak to you soon. Bye-bye. (relaxing music)
