- Hello, lovely students, and welcome back to English with Lucy. Today, we're going to do
something a little bit different. We're going to work on
your listening skills. Now this is not going to be a lesson where I explain many things to you. Instead, I'm going to ask
you to do an activity. By the way, in today's lesson, you will need a pen and paper, or a device like a smartphone
or a computer to make notes, but you will need something
to write down some answers. It's going to help you identify the areas of listening
that you need to work on, and it's going to help you improve your English listening skills. Now, I don't normally do this, but today I'm going to invite
you inside one of my courses, inside my English listening challenge. I'm going to allow you to
do some of the activities in that challenge, so that you
can also benefit from them. My listening challenge is a 30 day course designed specifically for students who struggle to understand
native speakers. I know that a lot of students want to listen to native
speakers in podcasts, in movies, in TV shows, in
real life in conversations, but there's a big barrier. There is something preventing
them from doing it. Unfortunately, the English
that you learn at school, the listening exercises
that you take at school, aren't always going to
help you understand English in real life. I have designed this
English listening challenge to transform your listening
skills in 30 days. You don't have to take it in 30 days, you have lifetime access. You can take it at your own pace, but if you really want
to make quick progress, then I recommend you do. My students have had amazing
results from this course. And what they love is that it features really interesting interviews
about British culture. Every day, we take a
clip from an interview. We do lots of exercises, and we analyse the
language, the pronunciation, the vocabulary, why
they're saying one thing, and not another. Best of all, the interviews
are with people you might know. Charlie from Real English
With Real Teachers, Jess from Love and
London, and Joel and Lia. We are offering a special price on the listening course at the moment. All you have to do is click on the link in the description box. You can view the course, you
can view the special price, and you can decide if you want to sign up. Hurry though, it is a time limited offer. I would love to help you out with your listening over 30 days. Okay, whenever I practise
listening with my students, I always make them start
with a transcription task. Transcription tasks are
incredibly effective ways of putting your listening
skills to the test. So I am going to play you three clips from an interview with Charlie from Real English With Real Teachers. He lives in Australia, and we are discussing
cultural differences. So I'm going to give you three clips, and we're going to play
each clip three times. I want you to write down what you hear. If you have to pause, and go back and play a few
more times, don't worry. This is quite a challenging exercise. Are you ready? Here's clip one. Wow, I really didn't expect that. It's quite fast. Let's play it again, see if
you can write anything down. Even if you write one word,
you're doing really well. Wow, I really didn't expect that. Did you get anything? Let's do it one more time. Wow, I really didn't expect that. I'm talking very quickly there. I'm talking at the pace I
speak when I'm with my friends. Okay, let's move on to clip number two. I'll give the answers at the end. - [Charlie] I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. - How did you get that? That's Charlie. I think he is speaking
slightly slower than I was. Let's go again. - [Charlie] I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. - One more time. - [Charlie] I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. - You can go back and
listen again if you need to. Let's move on to the last one. You ready? - [Charlie] The biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. - Ooh, this is a long one. I'm going to give you some more time. Just write down as many words as you can. Okay, let's play again. - [Charlie] The biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. - This is a really
advanced one to write down. That much is a lot. The clips are getting longer and longer. - [Charlie] The biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. - Pause if you need
some more time to think, go back if you need to play again, but now I'm going to discuss the answers. Clip number one, it was me. And I said, wow, I really
didn't expect that. But I said it really quickly. Wow, I really didn't expect that. In the listening challenge, we do go through connected speech, and how to understand natives when they're joining words together. Okay, the next one. - [Charlie] I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. - I guess it's because of the climate, and the power of the sun. Did you get any of that? Let's move on to the final one. - [Charlie] The biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. - The biggest thing in Australia for us was that they get up very
early, and go to bed very early. A very long sentence, but the
vocabulary isn't too advanced. Notice how he joins together
for us, for us, not for us. Okay, the next part is
the comprehension part of the listening test. I am going to give you
10 questions on screen. And at that same time, I will
play the full clip twice. If you need to listen again, just go back and re-listen,
listen to it again. After we've finished, I'll talk through the answers with you. What was the first
difference that you noticed culturally when you moved to Sydney? - [Charlie] I think the biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. They're a completely different
shift to, I think, the UK, where we tend to stay up quite late. What time do you go to bed? - [Lucy] See, I go to
bed quite early actually. We always have, because my husband, Will,
used to be a farmer. And so he would go to bed early to be able to get up and work early, because he just needed to
work in daylight hours. Why do you think that is in Australia? Don't they like to go out and party? - [Charlie] Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought they were a bit of a party, they had a bit of a party scene, but no, they, I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. It sounds a bit strange, but the sun is so bright
at like five or 6:00 AM, that it just feels right
to try and get up then. But it did come as a shock for us, because we wanted our
coffee at like 2:00 PM, but where my sister lives, which is north of Sydney
in the Gold Coast, all of the coffee shops were
shutting at around 1:30. We were like, what? - [Lucy] Wow, I really didn't expect that. I thought it would be
the other way around. Okay, now I'm going to play it again, and you can answer the
second set of questions. What was the first
difference that you noticed culturally when you moved to Sydney? - [Charlie] I think the biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. They're a completely different
shift to, I think, the UK, where we tend to stay up quite late. What time do you go to bed? - [Lucy] See, I go to
bed quite early actually. We always have, because my husband, Will,
used to be a farmer. And so he would go to bed early to be able to get up and work early, because he just needed to
work in daylight hours. Why do you think that is in Australia? Don't they like to go out and party? - [Charlie] Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought they were a bit of a party, they had a bit of a party scene, but no, they, I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. It sounds a bit strange, but the sun is so bright
at like five or 6:00 AM, that it just feels right
to try and get up then, but it did come as a shock for us, because we wanted our
coffee at like 2:00 PM, but where my sister lives, which is north of Sydney
in the Gold Coast, all of the coffee shops were
shutting at around 1:30. We were like, what? - Wow, I really didn't expect that. I thought it would be
the other way around. Okay, here are the
answers, how did you do? I'm going to provide you
with the full transcript of this clip soon. So you might understand a little bit more about why those answers
were true or false, but for now, let's move
on to the next exercise, which is a gap fill exercise, really testing your understanding. On screen, I am going to
show you the full transcript, but with some gaps, 10 gaps in total. I am going to play the clip once, and you can fill in the gaps. Again, if you need to listen
again, please do listen again, and then I'll talk through
the answers with you. Ready? Let's go. What was the first difference
that you noticed culturally when you moved to Sydney? - [Charlie] I think the biggest
thing in Australia for us was the fact that they get up very early, and go to bed very early. They're a completely different
shift to, I think, the UK, where we tend to stay up quite late. What time do you go to bed? - [Lucy] See, I go to
bed quite early actually. We always have, because my husband, Will,
used to be a farmer. And so he would go to bed early to be able to get up and work early, because he just needed to
work in daylight hours. Why do you think that is in Australia? Don't they like to go out and party? - [Charlie] Yeah, I know what you mean. I thought they were a bit of a party, they had a bit of a party scene, but no, they, I guess it's
because of the climate, and the power of the sun. It sounds a bit strange, but the sun is so bright
at like five or 6:00 AM, that it just feels right
to try and get up then. But it did come as a shock for us, because we wanted our
coffee at like 2:00 PM. But where my sister lives, which is north of Sydney
in the Gold Coast, all of the coffee shops were
shutting at around 1:30. We were like, what? - Wow, I really didn't expect that. I thought it would be
the other way around. So we have culturally,
then we had a shift, and a shift refers to a eight
hour, roughly, period of work. So you could do the day shift, the morning shift, the night shift. Charlie's saying that Australians have their timings different. They get up early, go to bed early. It's like they're doing a
different shift in the day. Then we had farmer, the
profession of working on a farm. Then we have daylight hours, the hours in the day
when the sun is shining. Number five, party scene. That's another way of talking
about the partying culture. We have the climate, the
general weather conditions. Then we had feels right. This is a common collocation,
words that often go together. If something feels right, it's something that you think is correct, or you think it's the
right way to do something. Then we have shock. If something comes as a shock,
it is a surprise to you. It surprised me, it came as a shock to me when he told me he wanted
to break up with me. Number nine, coffee shops, cafes, and number 10, the other way around, the opposite or the reverse. Now in the listening challenge, we go through the vocabulary, and then you have a quiz
on the new vocabulary. In this lesson, I'm
going to keep it simple, and move on to our language focus section. This is where I point
out something unique, or something interesting to my students in this listening clip, and we discuss it. In this clip, we're going
to focus on pronunciation, and we're going to talk
about dropping the T, not saying the T sound,
or using the glottal stop. The glottal stop features
in Cockney accents, where they say better instead of better, but speakers of RP receive pronunciation. My accent, we use it a lot too. Even the queen uses it sometimes. Listen to this clip. - [Charlie] The fact that
they get up very early, and go to bed very early. - It's quite quick, but he
says the fact that they, so he doesn't say the fact
that they, the fact that they, and this is because we often drop the T when the following word
starts with a consonant sound. Sometimes we use it with vowel sounds, but often with consonant sounds. The fact that they is quite hard to say, the fact that they, the fact that they. Listen again to an
example of me doing this. Don't they like to go out and party? Don't they? I don't say don't they, don't they like to go out and party? Go out, I don't say go out, go out. The glottal stop is more prominent when you hear it in the middle of words replacing the T sound, better. Our vocal folds close, it's almost like we're
making a cough sound, but with voice, like uh, uh, better. It's like we're stopping the flow of air. If you're looking for
another listening task, you can play the audio again, and see if you can identify more examples of dropping the T, the glottal stop. Now in the listening challenge, our daily lessons always end, always conclude with an
extra reading opportunity for those who want it, an interesting text about British American
or Australian culture. But for now, I think that's enough. I've worked you pretty hard. Let me know how you found
these listening exercises in the comment section. Imagine the results you'll get from doing these every day for 30 days. You will get quite dramatic results. If you are interested in
joining the listening challenge, and you want to see that special price, click on the link in the description box, you'll see the price,
you can view the course. You can learn a little
bit more about the course, and see if it's the right fit for you. Don't forget to connect with
me on all of my social media. I've got my Instagram, or I've
got my got two Instagrams. I've got my personal one @Lucy, and my English learning
one, EnglishwithLucy, where I share lots of short
videos on learning English. And I've got my website,
englishwithlucy.co.uk, where I've got a fantastic
interactive pronunciation tool. You can click on the phonemes, and hear me pronounce the phonemes, and words that contain those phonemes. It's really useful. If you are looking to
improve your listening skills and your vocabulary skills even further, then I also have my vlogging channel, where I document my life here
in the English countryside. And all of the vlogs are fully subtitled for English learners. I will see you soon for another lesson. (gentle music)
