Transcript of A Peak Behind the Curtain of TBEP

Charlie:
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. Welcome to another bitesize episode of the British English Podcast. I'm going to be totally honest with you right now. I've taken this audio from the scraps of my hard drive. I removed this segment from what was meant to be part two of an episode for Premium and Academy members, but we recorded for over an hour about a load of history around the great English country houses. So this segment was from when Ben, the historian from Down Under decided to go rogue and lead the conversation in a direction that I hadn't planned for. And we actually covered quite a variety of things, such as the technical problems I face when doing face to face episodes; fun mass nouns that natives like to hear about; a couple of other comparisons to other languages; my partner becoming a professional artist on the day of recording this; what my recording studio is like for a guest, and what a stag do is like. Oh, and what it means to be whipped. So yeah, although there's not much of an overarching theme to the chat other than it's all a peek behind the curtain, as some like to say, I think there's some nice language and topics that naturally arise, so humour me, if you will, with a bitesize episode that I will actually call a peek behind the curtain of the British English Podcast.

Ben:
We can give him a little peek behind the curtain for a moment. Tell them about all our technical problems just before we started.

Charlie:
Oh, yeah. It was an absolute nightmare. I've got about 100 cables spewn across the table right now.

Ben:
Spewn! Hmm. Wow. That's a good word.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Ben:
I sound like you.

Charlie:
Yeah. Lain in an unorganised way.

Ben:
Lown.

Charlie:
Lown.

Ben:
No, that's not. That's not a word. It's like when people say a, uh, a bunch of horses, you know, a bunch of gooses is geese. Well, my friends and I used to say, you know, horses is a bunch of horses as heese.

Charlie:
Having fun with irregular nouns.

Ben:
Yeah. Have you, do you ever actually on any of these have you ever done that interesting thing where you talk about the, um, the grouping word for a bunch of different animals. So like, for example, crows, the collective... Is it collective noun for them?... is, is a murder of crows. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. The collective or mass noun.

Ben:
These are interesting. These are very interesting like ones that we all know. Like you've got a flock of sheep.

Charlie:
Yes.

Ben:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Uh, or a school of fish. Yeah, they are interesting. I feel like for a non-native it's, it's not that common to use it. Like we as natives, we, we find it interesting, right? So we don't know it that much. I don't use it that much.

Ben:
I wonder if other, you know, other languages do that same thing. I mean, I'm assuming most other language languages would just have one word as like a collective noun for any any amount of any animal, really.

Charlie:
It would be it would be efficient. But I wouldn't assume that it's just exclusive to English.

Ben:
Well, I wonder, because that would actually display something about the creativity of English.

Charlie:
Are you suggesting that we're special?

Ben:
Well, I think there is a unique creativity in English. I do know this as a fact that we have, I think... Well, now I just said as a fact, but I don't know this exactly is a fact. I definitely know as a fact the English language is the most populous language in the world, having the most words.

Charlie:
Uh, yeah, I... I feel like I read that it's almost half a million, like 470,000 words. But I think what's different is other languages use intonation or like, suffixes, suffixes in a different way, so that that would expand their vocabulary in a huge amount. [I see] In a huge way.

Ben:
Like a RAM pack for a video game.

Charlie:
I'm not sure if many people would get that.

Ben:
Okay.

Charlie:
But anyway, yes, we're... We've got lots of cables around us.

Ben:
Yeah. So it's... I don't know if you guys like that when we give you a little peek behind the curtain. I like it. I know if I'm listening to podcasts is I like to hear about where they are, we're in a room. That's... I hope that's.

Charlie:
A peek behind the curtain. We're in a room!

Ben:
We're in a room. I'm... I'm with Charlie in the same room.

Charlie:
Good stuff. Good facts.

Ben:
We have a... It's very hot in here, I'll tell you that right now. You guys might be very cool wherever you are right now. I am fucking boiling.

Charlie:
Yeah, I deliberately turn it up so that hopefully Ben will take his top off for me.

Ben:
Yeah, I'm actually, you know, he's pretending that I'm not sitting here naked. [Yeah] No. So, I mean, like, we're sitting in a tiny little room in Charlie's apartment in Sydney, and we've got the windows shut and the door shut, and his partner is outside painting. She just sold a painting.

Charlie:
She just sold her first painting.

Ben:
Congratulations. [Yeah!] You guys are going to be rich.

Charlie:
Yeah, well, maybe. It wasn't that much.

Ben:
When she dies, it'll be worth more.

Charlie:
Yeah, Maybe I should kill her.

Ben:
Yeah, I think so. That's what's behind the curtain.

Charlie:
What?! A murder machine for Stacey?

Ben:
But I'll tell you what. We had the cables, right? It was making this crazy sound before. It was picking up FM radio.

Charlie:
Yeah. Really strange.

Ben:
I don't understand how that works. I mean, it's... We don't have a transmitter here or a what do you call it? An aerial. And it was picking up FM radio and we had like this weird sort of t-t-t-t-t-t in the, in the cable and we had Charlie wrapping the cable and holding it at weird angles, like, you know, back, you know, back in the day when you would hold your aerial out and swing it around to get a to get a signal? It was like Charlie was doing the opposite of that, to get rid of the signal.

Charlie:
Yeah, Yeah. I've done online podcasts for so long and I've been really keen to do like face to face podcasts, but there's so much more to it than just going on your computer and connecting with somebody on the other side on Zoom or something. There's a lot more to this.

Ben:
Yeah, yeah. I mean, it's a complex operation here. I mean, what's something else behind the scenes? He's got two little things called dynamite sticks, which apparently they look like little sticks of dynamite and you plug them in and at the end of the cord into the... What's that thing called?

Charlie:
An audio interface.

Ben:
An audio interface. And apparently it's something... Does something with the gain.

Charlie:
It does. Yeah. It boosts the gain so that everybody can hear you clearly without an under- undertone of sssssssssss.

Ben:
Yeah, but unfortunately it was actually doing the opposite and it was making it terrible, so we had to take them out. [Yeah]. It's a great purchase.

Charlie:
Yeah. Thank you.

Ben:
And why do you have a tiny... On my left, he's got his shelf and you have a tiny keyboard. Why do you have that?

Charlie:
It's for my tiny hands.

Ben:
Why do you have this tiny keyboard?

Charlie:
It's called.

Ben:
It looks... Honestly, that looks like a keyboard you would buy a four year old.

Charlie:
Well, you're clearly not in the know. It's an MPK. It's it's basically what these new music producers rely on. It's like... It's got a drum pad and a mixer [Yeah] and then piano. So you can literally make any sound you want [All right] with that. Even fart noises if you want.

Ben:
Wow. Oh, I'll tell you guys, I. I had a very sore throat for the last two days, and this morning I could barely speak and I... Charlie gave me a beer, and I have been able to talk, but I think... I don't know. I'll have to listen to this back. I think I've got a bit of a raspy voice at the moment.

Charlie:
You do. But I would I would class it as controversially more sexy.

Ben:
I think definitely more sexy. I mean, the problem with it is it's it's dangerous because I'm going to have to kiss every single girl on the way home because I can't. I can't. How can I help it?

Charlie:
Maybe that's how COVID started.

Ben:
Yeah. Someone came out with COVID and they had a super sexy, raspy voice, and every girl in that Chinese city just fell for him.

Charlie:
Yeah. [And umm..] Have you forgotten the name of that Chinese city?

Ben:
Wuhan.

Charlie:
Yeah. There you go.

Ben:
Yeah, there we go. Yeah, I was about to talk a bit more about COVID, but I think we've all heard enough about COVID.

Charlie:
Yeah, I think we have. [Yeah]. Um, that's, that's plenty of peeking behind the curtain, I think. Let's get to the...

Ben:
Wait. I do want you to tell them the amount of time you went out on the weekend.

Charlie:
Well, I'd like to preface it by saying that I rarely do this.

Ben:
Yeah. Yeah.

Charlie:
I'm normally a very studious human.

Ben:
Yeah, he is, actually.

Charlie:
But I was invited to a stag do, which I don't think many other cultures other than English speaking cultures do this tradition very often. But a party for the groom who is about to get married. And yeah it was a big, big day. Started at 9 a.m.. We threw axes like a bowling alley, but axes. I was actually surprisingly very good at it.

Ben:
Really? Did you get a bullseye?

Charlie:
Yeah, I got five bullseyes in a row.

Ben:
Really? [Yeah]. Fuck. You should have been a Viking. I was about to say Viking princess. I mean, a Viking.

Charlie:
That is actually perfect.

Ben:
Yeah, actually, I think a Viking princess could throw an axe. [Yeah?] Yeah, I reckon... I reckon. Get about it. Change a little moniker with this British English podcast from a bus to a cartoon version of yourself as a Viking princess.

Charlie:
Okay. Yeah, I don't know that word moniker. Can you explain it to me?

Ben:
Is it a moniker like you're a symbol? Like it's like your... So like Googles moniker is that... Is that G.

Charlie:
Ah! And that's not a logo then?

Ben:
Apple's Moniker, I think... I might be wrong. I said the word moniker and I thought that was what it was.

Charlie:
Yeah, it might be.

Ben:
Like Apple's moniker is an apple.

Charlie:
Is that not a logo?

Ben:
I think so, yeah.

Charlie:
So it's the same...

Ben:
You've got a computer in front of you.

Charlie:
Moniker, M O N I K E R? [Yeah]. It says a name or a nickname.

Ben:
A name. Okay. Yep, yep, yep, yep.

Charlie:
His real moniker is Dave Kennedy, for example.

Ben:
Okay. And how did I use it?

Charlie:
You used it in a visual sense, but maybe you could say instead of being known as Charlie Baxter, your moniker could be Viking...

Ben:
Viking Princess. There we go. We had a little English lesson. You taught me something. Now, I know...

Charlie:
I wouldn't have got there without you, babe.

Ben:
Yeah, but now I know why you guys sign up for his classes. He's just a fountain of information.

Charlie:
But, yeah, I didn't... I didn't admit how long I was out, so I started at 9 a.m...

Ben:
Well. Sorry to interrupt you. I want to give them another peek behind the curtain. Oh sh...! That's one on my laptop.

Charlie:
There you go. That's some real.

Ben:
Fuck. Okay.

Charlie:
Real info. Oh no, it went on my laptop!

Ben:
Yeah, you tell 'em... Tell 'em about your absolute bender.

Charlie:
A bender is a very, very big night of drinking. So, yeah. 9 a.m. until 4 a.m.. So nearly nearly 24 hours.

Ben:
How did you last that long?

Charlie:
I actually snuck away, and I had a coffee. I had a double espresso coffee, and he miscommunicated with me. Or I did. And I got two sugars with it as well. [Nice]. But yeah, I had quite a few beers. And then my drinking partner left halfway through the night and I was alone with a group of strangers. So I decided to indulge in quite a few gin and tonics at a rapid speed.

Ben:
And is that because he is whipped? Whipped?

Charlie:
Very good. What does whipped mean?

Ben:
Whipped.

Charlie:
Actually, don't define it. Use it in an example. Another one.

Ben:
Your friend is whipped to his wife.

Charlie:
Yeah, I suppose it would be by. But we don't use it in that way. You just say you are whipped.

Ben:
Whipped is like just a visual. It's like if you imagine your wife, you're on all fours crawling along the ground and your wife's just whipping you and telling you what to do. Get down.

Charlie:
Exactly. And you could use it both ways. But traditionally, guys joke about it more about being in control, being controlled by their partner.

Ben:
Oh, yeah, I was just joking. I was giving you a visual. But yeah, definitely being whipped is... It just means that you do everything your wife tells you to do.

Charlie:
Or your partner. [Your partner]. Yeah. So, yes, my, my, my drinking buddy is whipped. To be fair, his his partner is pregnant, so she she was demanding that he comes home and he couldn't really refuse because she is making his child.

Ben:
Oh, that's fair enough.

Charlie:
Yeah. I mean, it is and it isn't. The context was a bit ridiculous because he had paid for the boat that we were about to go on. Anyway. Yeah. It was a long, long night and...

Ben:
Do they listen... Do they listen to this podcast?

Charlie:
Not the premium part bit. That's why I'm spilling the beans.

Ben:
Okay, well just you might as well say what the names are then.

Charlie:
No, no need for that.

Ben:
I'm just winding you up.

Charlie:
All right. We will leave that conversation there. Obviously, if those friends of mine do listen to this episode, I am buggered. So, yeah, let's hope they don't. But if they do. Um. Hello, guys. Sorry. Forgive me, pretty please! I was just trying to make content for my language learning listeners. Hmm. Who's whipped now? Hey, I'm afraid of them right now. Right. Thank you for listening to the end of this one. Have a lovely week. And if you can make someone else's week, good, too. All right. Ben Marks was the guest today. So big it up for Ben. I've been Charlie Baxter, the host of this show, and I'll see you next time on the British English podcast.