Transcript of Bonus Ep 9 - Pt. 1 Transcript

Charlie:
And we have Martin. Hello, Martin, from Rock and Roll English. You're back again. How the hell are you?

Martin:
I'm fine, thanks, Charlie. Thanks for having me on. I always mention how it is so strange when we record these podcasts. So you just ask how I am. And we've been speaking for like twenty minutes already. So to ask someone how they are after 20 minutes is always a strange thing, isn't it?

Charlie:
It is, but I deliberately didn't ask you that question and we went straight into you talking about your wallet and your piece of string that we might recycle if if you really want. But so I didn't actually ask "How are you?".

Martin:
That's such a good point. Yeah. Well, how rude was that? We were talking for 20 minutes and you didn't even ask me how I am?

Charlie:
But there we go. I can now get an authentic response. How are you?

Martin:
True. Very true. Very well. Thank you. Very well. You?

Charlie:
Yeah I'm good. I'm good. I did actually answer your question earlier. I've had a bit of a lazy day today. I shouldn't really admit that, but. Yeah. Yeah. So it's good to get a podcast done today. This evening for me. Morning for you. But yeah, today we're talking about fatherhood because you of course know that you are a father.

Martin:
Yeah. I mean, I still struggle to believe it's true, but apparently it is. So yeah. Already, this guy.

Charlie:
Yeah. How long have you been a father?

Martin:
When people ask me this, my first thought is when is the 14th because she was actually born on Valentine's Day. Easy to remember. Yeah. I'm not one of those people. You know, when you speak to someone, they say like she's like twenty eight and a half weeks. That's really strange. I just go by months. Well, at the first, you know, you go by days originally and then once you get to the one week mark, you go by weeks, you get to that a month and then you go by months and then you get to a year and you go by years. You get some people, don't you? And they say, like, you- say, how old is your baby? They said, 36 months. So- well that- that's exactly three years then. You can just say three.

Charlie:
And they might even dare to do that in weeks.

Martin:
Yeah. Oh, God. Yeah. Yeah. So she's almost four months. Yes. I've been a dad now for nearly four months.

Charlie:
Okay.

Martin:
Exactly the same time that she's been alive.

Charlie:
So thank you very much for not making me do the calculation of how many weeks in a month. I agree with that. A lot of people do that. I think probably when you become a father or when I would potentially become a father, I might be a sucker for the average, like, opinion on how to phrase it. I might might go the wrong way. But you've- you've been strong and you've held your ground.

Martin:
Yeah, no, I generally just lost count as well. You can't- you know, you get to life after, like, four weeks. I think we got to like eight and then after that you've got to go by months. It's too difficult.

Charlie:
Yeah. Did you do it with the pregnancy? Because that's- that's one that I get a bit frustrated with as well. Oh, she's 15 weeks.

Martin:
Yeah. You know what, with the pregnancy I kind of did mainly because my wife was always up to date with that one, because after so many weeks, this happens. How many more weeks to go because you've kind of got the count down. So, yeah. So I suppose with the pregnancy that- we kind of did, I was kind of kept up to date with that one, but-.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
Yeah.

Charlie:
I suppose that app tells you each week how big the baby gets.

Martin:
All of that. So in fact I- I always had oh the baby's like the size of like an apple the size of- and then you got like all of this fruit, basically, until the baby is actually born. Which is a strange thing comparing your baby to fruit the whole time. But yeah, that's basically how it works.

Charlie:
So I'm just trying to think if there's anything British in comparison to other cultures there, did you notice anything with your partner? She's Italian, right?

Martin:
Mmm, yeah.

Charlie:
Any any differences in the lead up to having the child that you're like, Oh, that's a bit different.

Martin:
One, I suppose was here. Straight away, you tell someone like you're expecting a baby and they're like, what's the name? Whilst in England, we kind of like to keep that a bit of a secret, don't we? Like, no one really tells you that before for no reason really, whilst here it's like, yeah, very much everyone's like, direct question. What are you calling the baby? And so I was a bit like, whoa, like, you know, that's a really personal question. And it was- my wife was like, no, it's not. Everyone does it here. So- so that was a bit strange. They also do this another thing, which I find strange anyway, here, of like when people I dunno like in the last few weeks they go to a photographer and basically they get their, like, stomach painted of like with a baby and the baby's name. So the baby was say, like Ricardo and they'll have that. And yes, it's a bit weird. We- we obviously didn't do that.

Charlie:
Sorry I thought your- the C, in that name, was a T. I was a bit confused.

Martin:
Ok, no, sorry. I was trying. I thought I'd be flash and do the Italian pronunciation. Ricardo, for the English one, yeah.

Charlie:
That's a tradition that we definitely don't have. But I've noticed in America and may- and Australia, they- they do the photo shoot of being pregnant and the husband cupping the belly. I don't think we do that in England. I think we take-.

Martin:
No.

Charlie:
We- we'd- we scoff at that, don't we? We think that's too ridiculous.

Martin:
Yeah, very much so. I mean, the Italian equivalent of that is the one I sort of just mentioned.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
Because they do that and then they have this thing of, like, the- the painted baby on this stomach and. Yeah, but yeah, we're- we're very much so. I didn't want- I didn't want to do any of that.

Charlie:
Ok, so, was- was your partner disappointed?

Martin:
No. Luckily, she's actually got yeah quite, erm, I think a British mentality of like low-key kind of stuff. So she was very happy to not, and do this. And I- I suppose this one, another cultural difference. When the baby arrived immediately because we had a girl and here it's very common (to) pierce the baby's ears immediately whilst- and then I saw, I believe in other cultures, I think in South America as well.

Charlie:
Hmm.

Martin:
Whilst again, in Britain, that's very much considered a big no no.

Charlie:
Yeah. I would say that even at a young age of like under teenage years, people would frown upon it, wouldn't they?

Martin:
Definitely. So obviously we didn't do this for my daughter. And so to give you an example, my niece, who is coming up nine recently basically insisted on getting her ears pierced. And yeah, my brother was not so happy about it, to be honest, but he gave in to the pressure and like, yeah, she's nearly nine.

Charlie:
Right. She's in- in England.

Martin:
Yeah, in England. Yeah, but but yeah, just to like, demonstrate the point we were making of, it's not something young children do, that's all.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. Your brother would be quite shocked if he was married to your- your partner.

Martin:
Yeah. Although again my partner didn't really want that to happen, but it was mainly like family and friends saying, saying "Are we-", "Are you going to get her ears pierced?"

Charlie:
Ah, they came with a gun.

Martin:
Exactly.

Charlie:
Come here, little baby! Yeah.

Martin:
So, yes- so that- that was another strange thing for us as well.

Charlie:
Don't need to spend too much time on it, but is there much maternity, paternity leave in Italy?

Martin:
No, not much at all really in comparison to the UK. So the UK, I mean for the women, I think it's around about a year. I don't know how it works. I think maybe the last few months you maybe get paid a little bit less. In Italy, it's basically three months. Well, the women- I actually literally just went self-employed just before she was born, so I didn't actually get any-.

Charlie:
Good- good move!

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. But I think I think you get like two days anyway for, like, paternity leave-

Charlie:
Two days?!

Martin:
- missed out. Yeah, exactly.

Charlie:
Wow. I remember in Germany, they- they give the women two years. They- shhww- one year or two years split between the- the one year of salary. Yeah. And then you can come back to your job. But I don't get how companies survive. If I- as a company as your- as you're a self-employed man, imagine if you got one employee and then she turned out to be pregnant in a year you'd be bankrupt before she got to the 12th week.

Martin:
Yeah, I mean, I agree. Yeah. Especially if you're paying them for like, for two years or whatever. No, no idea.

Charlie:
I suppose that comes across a bit sexist. It's just- just thinking about the finances, guys. Nothing more. Yeah. Yeah. Okay, so I got some questions from my Instagram followers asking you about your- your fatherhood, your journey that you've been on. And one of them @ls_natasha is asking, "What books will you read to your child?"

Charlie:
I'm just going to interrupt this episode briefly to tell you about the free e-book and audio book that was written and narrated by Harry and myself, giving you everything you need to know about using idiomatic expressions in the IELTS Speaking Exam. This audio book runs for 45 minutes, and we've had an overwhelming amount of emails thanking us for this amazing free gift, which you can find in the show notes of this episode, or head over to www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com And then you can scroll down the home page until you see the free resources. And that is where you will be able to get your hands on 45 minutes of incredibly valuable teaching resources.

Charlie:
And we made this as we've created an online IELTS speaking course that has actually been on the backburner for a while now, meaning, not the main focus for us or lower on the list of priorities. But I've decided to take it in a new direction with fortnightly IELTS workshops. And I will also be updating the content in the course in the coming weeks. So if you wanted to get yourself an affordable IELTS preparation course, then do it now before the price increase along with the update. Again, you can find this in the show notes or over at www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com

Martin:
Ok, I mentioned something about this recently on a podcast, so I bought a few books because I'm very much, and I'm very keen to, like, teach her English, let's say, because obviously she's growing up in Italy. My wife speaks to her in Italian, like my wife's family, obviously speak to her in Italian. So the only real English input she's got is from me. So obviously, I literally, just like, "Come, I've had a really busy day today." "Oh, I did so many lessons. I'm so tired." Just keep talking and talking and talking. But, so, reading stories. So I got a few books. So I was reading one the other day. So first of all, the stories have got some vocabulary in there. It- it- it goes over my head. It's too- it's too difficult for me and it's more like- for like, children. Children basically.

Charlie:
What? What kind of like-?

Martin:
There's just some weird vocabulary in there and I'm sort of thinking what does that- and I'm trying to pronounce it. I'm like, yeah, but- but- but- so I don't think I'm the best, like, story reader and but yeah, I was reading one the other day about The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

Charlie:
Oh yeah. Classic.

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. And there was one bit though where- yeah, ah, I'm reading it. And then it says- because obviously the word pussy-cat, if you take off the word "cat" off that, you're in trouble, basically. I'm- I'm sure everyone's familiar with that. But-

Charlie:
You know, our generation-

Martin:
Female area, let's say private area.

Charlie:
Private area. Very good. Yeah.

Martin:
So then it- I was reading it and it just said like, "Oh, pussy, my lovely pussy, my beautiful pussy." And I'm kind of reading this thinking, this is a bit x-rated, to be reading to my daughter. That's like, not even four months old. "Oh, you beautiful pussy."

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
And I just felt extremely uncomfortable saying those words.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
To my thoughts. So yeah, I had to add on Pussy Cat, but yes, I've got some lovely story books. Actually, have lots of pictures and then I try to like tell her what's going on. You know, there's the mouse, there's the cat, there's a dog, whatever.

Charlie:
Is she engaging visually with them?

Martin:
Sometimes. Sometimes she, you know, she couldn't give a sh-

Charlie:
Shut up, Dad. Shut up about that pussy.

Martin:
Exactly. Although, we read in a story about the pussy, okay. Sometimes she starts crying and then her mum has to come in and say, "Look, that's enough. She's really not interested." But sometimes she is. Such- her mum has to like break it up! It's like a fight.

Charlie:
No, is it a generational thing, though. My auntie has a cat and whenever I go round, it really disturbs me because she strokes it and she said, "Oh, beautiful pussy. Mwah! Aww, lovely pussy! Mwah, pussy!" And I- yeah, I feel like you in that situation.

Martin:
Yeah, very awkward.

Charlie:
That one is called the cat and the-

Martin:
No, The Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

Charlie:
The Owl and the Pussy-cat. The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. Yes. Any others?

Martin:
Err well so generally you by the books and there's like quite a few stories in there. Yeah. They're pretty expensive as well, these books, because they got, like, lots of big pictures, you know, when you go through them pretty quick and then you're like, 'oh, am I going to recycle them?' Because if I- if I'm buying these books for the pace we're reading these stories, I'm going to go bankrupt. It will be like hiring someone that gets pregnant after two weeks. It's like everyone's just trying to bankrupt me.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah. I've actually- I've actually thought of a- a product that I want to do in the future. I do voiceovers and I've been doing children's books occasionally.

Martin:
Okay.

Charlie:
And I quite enjoyed the little characters.

Martin:
Okay.

Charlie:
And I thought a good option would- would be to build an app for the iPad or whatever device. But, you know, I can imagine a kid engaging with an iPad like that. And doing loads of these short stories, writing them in good illustrations. But then at the end of it, having this sort of pronunciation drilling and like the hard sounds to produce like, you know, in an interactive way. And if it was an app form, you could have loads of different stories and it wouldn't be much of a waste of product.

Martin:
Exactly. You don't have to keep buying the books. Yeah, you just buy the app. I kind of like it. Yeah. Count me in.

Charlie:
Yeah?

Martin:
I'll be there. You can count me - one subscriber.

Charlie:
Yeah, I think it'd be nice. Okay. So but just for others who are wanting to get books for their children, any others that you can remember that you're enjoying?

Martin:
I'd like to say, I've only got these actual books which I think they're called- I can't remember, like Usborne Books, Usborne, something like that. They seem to be quite big. So I'm trying to build a collection of them. I've got three at the moment and there's probably about stories in each of them, I think it's called-

Charlie:
Edward Lear is the author or illustrator.

Martin:
So the Usborne Children's books. Yeah, although I don't know if my pronunciation's correct. They're-.

Charlie:
Okay.

Martin:
They're bloody good, bloody good place to start, which is basically where I've started.

Charlie:
Nice. Nice. Okay, great. There we go. Next one was from Miriam. "How different is the education in Italy considering the culture?" I've reworded it, I didn't need to. "How different is the education considering Italian culture and English culture?" Obviously, that's a little bit later on in the journey for you. But do you know anything about it, based on the fact that you've lived there for quite a few years now?

Charlie:
This episode comes with a free worksheet over on the website www.thebritishenglish.com So grab that and you can listen along whilst using it.

Martin:
Yeah, also, obviously, although I have lived here for quite a few years, obviously I haven't been through the school system myself. So, like, you hear things. Yeah, it seems to be very much more intense here of like doing lots more homework, especially for the young kids. I often hear stories of parents having to do like their homework for their kids and like, you know, eight year old children falling asleep on their books. And this kind of thing- whilst, I remember I didn't actually get any homework till I was in the last year of primary school, which was 10 to 11. And it was very minimal.

Charlie:
I think the same, yeah. I thought you were going to say I didn't get any homework until the last year of school, which would have been worrying. I think so, about 10 years old, you start getting homework, maybe a few things to do with the topic books. Do you remember topic books?

Martin:
Ah, not one hundred percent sure. Maybe because I'm older than you.

Charlie:
Like Year Two, Year Three. Now, my sisters, they were three, five years older than me. They had them. So you have like ten or so pages and you have to stick things in and then mount them and like display something visual about a historic thing about your geographical thing.

Martin:
Yeah sort of primary school stuff. Yeah, kind of. I can't remember doing anything in primary school except sort of just playing football in the playground. Exactly. And the other things that we used to do sometimes- again, this was a choice thing I think, and then so, no one really did it. D'you know like after the summer holidays and you like, right. What- and you had like a sort of book about what you did during the summer holidays. Did you do that one?

Charlie:
Yes, yeah.

Martin:
Pictures stick them on some pages. Yeah. So yeah, a lot of these things, they all seem sort of like, you know, nice fun things. Whilst here, it seems to be a bit more, a bit more intense. And they did- they have these things called interrogations here.

Charlie:
Wow. That does sound intense.

Martin:
Yeah. Exactly. Which are their exams. Which all the exams are verbal here-.

Charlie:
And it's called an interrogation?

Martin:
Yeah. Yeah. It's like the direct translation would be an interrogation. People often say to me, how do I translate- by- the word in Italian is 'interrogation', how do I translate it? It translates as 'interrogation'. But because we don't- we don't have that. And yeah, the only translation is 'interrogation'.

Charlie:
But we would say 'oral exam', wouldn't we?

Martin:
Yeah, I- I suppose an oral exam, but yeah. I mean, and they make you apparently like do this oral exam in front of the whole class as well. You have to stand up in front of the whole class. Pretty intense from, ah, just, like, sticking in a few pictures in a book.

Charlie:
Right, definitely. So this is primary school when they're young-

Martin:
Ah, I'm not sure if- if the interrogations go on at primary school, definitely go on at middle school, which again, is not really a thing in England, definitely go on there, which is I think for about 10 to 13.

Charlie:
Right. Okay. Yeah. Wow. Okay, interesting. Well, there we go. I- I feel like you've- you've hit the nail on the head there. You've answered Miriam's questions about the cultural differences, although, timings, I want to know that for some reason. Do you- have- do they have different times to go to school than English kids?

Martin:
Yes. Yes. They generally start earlier, I think from around like eight, eight-thirty, I'm not sure. And then they finish at like maybe two o'clock, maybe a bit before two o'clock because it's like, you have lunch at home. They don't have, you know, like, we have like a lunch break at school. We eat at school.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
They might finish and they go home for lunch.

Charlie:
That would be quite a late lunch.

Martin:
Yeah. So they, I think they have a break around about eleven o'clock and they like apparently they've got to have something quick to eat then. But sometimes I think some schools, between one and two, they finish. I'm not 100 percent sure. It depends on the school, but they finish between one and two, maybe primary school finish a bit earlier.

Charlie:
Okay. Do you remember having the half day when you went in reception and then finally you did the full day?

Martin:
Yeah, that was- that was a step up, wasn't it? Yeah.

Charlie:
Big boy,

Martin:
It's that big boy shit, yeah.

Charlie:
Oh, okay. Well, thank you very much, Miriam, for that question. Going on to Petra's question, "Are you raising your child bilingual, English and Italian?"

Martin:
I'm certainly hoping to. That's- that's definitely the plan.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
I was actually very worried about this before because I kind of find it a bit strange to talk to my wife in English, because when you- when you do that, which is really strange for me, because English is obviously my native language. So I never thought I would feel strange speak in my native language, but I do. When I speak to my wife in English, because everything changes, like the tone of voice changes. It's like you're a different person.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
And also- so like with her as well. So it's like, 'Who are you?' Like, yeah, where's my- where's my wife gone? So I, I was really worried that I was going to feel uncomfortable talking to our child in English as well. And I was thinking, oh God, this is going to be a nightmare. She's going to- she's not going to learn English and she's only going to learn bad Italian from me. Like, so I was really worried, but it's actually not the case at all, because I don't feel strange talking to her in English, to my- my daughter, that is. And now it's actually a bit more normal to speak to my wife in English because she hears me speak in English much more now whilst before she didn't. Whilst now I'll be speaking English a lot more at home. So, yeah, the- the plan is to raise her bilingual. I actually read a book about this as well, raising a bilingual child. And it's one of those books, you read the whole thing and you kind of think, well, someone could have just given me the whole one line, which I already knew anyway, which was like, basically one parent, one language.

Charlie:
I was just going to say that I think I've heard that. You can't try to do both languages with your-.

Martin:
Yeah.

Charlie:
With your daughter as one person. You've got to be- yeah. Which- which would not encourage or favour a single parent, family, would it? That would- that would be quite a hard challenge.

Martin:
Very much so. Very much so, yeah. And so yeah, we're trying to raise her obviously to be bilingual. And another strange thing about this is you kind of learn lots of, like, kids vocabulary. So also- even for like my wife, like the other day, she said to me, like, what- "What does din-dins mean?" Because like- I said, I was talking to, like, my baby girl. I said, "Ah, did you have some din-dins?" Because you kind of have this, like, baby kind of vocabulary, don't you?

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah, we do.

Martin:
Which you hadn't really thought about. But there's lots of kind of baby words.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
You know, like 'cheeky monkey' is another one.

Charlie:
Yeah. That's good. Yeah. And also, as you said, being different languages, you change your tone and stuff. So it's strange for you to talk to your wife in a different tone. You're almost a different person. And when you speak to a child, you often have that raised- raised tone, don't you? Do you get a bit confused and you just start talking to her in that tone because she only knows that version of you in English?

Martin:
Maybe, actually. Well, because normally when I'm talking to my wife in English, it's like talking to my wife and baby at the same time. If we're just having just me and my wife, then we're talking.

Charlie:
So who are the cheeky monkeys in the room? You kind of-

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. So, so yeah. I suppose my wife is also learning the same kind of baby talk.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
That my daughter is.

Charlie:
Yeah. Useful stuff though. Yeah. Let's squeeze one more into Part One of the episode. Sasser says "How different he would behave with his child from his father, with himself?" I think what Sasser's saying is-.

Martin:
OK, so like-.

Charlie:
Do you understand that?

Martin:
Mmm, I think so- so like- so like how my father was with me and how I am with my daughter.

Charlie:
Yeah. Can you rephrase that, like, kind of in that way, but in a question?

Martin:
Would you say- how would you compare your fathering skills to your father's. Something like that, I don't know.

Charlie:
Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That's good.

Martin:
Yeah that would do. I got the message across. That- that's what language is for. Just to get- so you can communicate the message, doesn't matter how you do it.

Charlie:
Exactly. Thank you, Sasser. So, what do you think?

Martin:
I mean obviously to my, my daughter's only we mentioned not even four months old.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Martin:
So I don't really remember what my dad was like in that period.

Charlie:
That's a great point, yeah. I suppose we don't need to get the Freudian sofa out quite yet.

Martin:
Yeah, I'm not 100 percent sure. So, what do I think of like my dad and things I think of like going to the park to play football when I was, you know, a kid.

Charlie:
Well, let- let's think of it how you want to be, in relation.

Martin:
You know, I want to put my dad down here. He did a good job. So, yeah, if I raise my daughter like my dad raised me, I would be fairly happy. Yeah.

Charlie:
I didn't quite appreciate how you could be putting your- your dad in it, but, for that question, yeah.

Martin:
Yeah. He did a shit job like, I- I- I- as long as I do better than him then I'll be okay.

Charlie:
Well I feel like we can, we can say that we're- we're learning- improve our family's existence as we get one generation wise.

Martin:
Of course, I think that- that's- that's always the thing. I think for my dad, with his dad, I think that just generally happens. One thing as well, I read recently, because I obviously read a lot of stuff about parenting stuff when- when you get there, is that now obviously people like me become parents much older. So my dad was a dad when he was probably, I don't know, 23? Already, that's a big difference in your in you personally so if you're asking someone that's like 23 or 36 to be a dad, like they're different people. So that makes a big difference. So yeah. So like, in the past, when people were having babies, when they were like, you know, 20 and stuff like that, like, I'm sure they were doing their best. But sometimes they didn't even know, like, what to do. That's the other thing about being a parent. You realise no one's got a clue. No one knows what's going on. I kind of just thought people know this stuff, but no one- no one knows. Everyone just kind of makes it up as they go along.

Charlie:
That's why we're so scared. Or a lot of people are quite scared of having a child because you feel like you don't know. But yeah, that is interesting to- to be that side of it. And you can see that no one's got a clue, especially first time parents.

Martin:
Yeah. And then as well, lots of people tell you stuff like, 'Oh, you've- you've got to do this, for example, when doctors tell you the complete opposite of like, for example- Now, just to give an example, it's standard practise for babies to sleep on their back, whilst in the past I think they had babies on their stomach. But apparently, there's actually a risk of like, the baby suffocating. So maybe the older people would say, 'Oh, no, the baby needs to sleep, but she needs to sleep on her stomach.' Well, you know because the doctor who's, like, probably knows a little bit more than you, told me, that's like strictly forbidden. As- I would in this one, I'm going to trust the doctor.

Charlie:
And your wife is saying, 'Shut up! Shut up! Yes, that's a lovely idea. Thank you. We're going to be leaving now! Come on, Martin!'

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. So, but, yeah, as I said, you realise no one's got a clue. Basically.

Charlie:
Yeah. Or a people, have lots of opinions, but they're not necessarily based on- on facts. Yeah.

Martin:
Yeah.

Charlie:
I heard something about how much you sleep, how much the baby sleeps on- like their head tilt, like whether it's, it's, you know-

Martin:
OK.

Charlie:
And, and that apparently forms the skull a bit.

Martin:
OK.

Charlie:
And I'm really paranoid of my head being quite weird, like that ways. So I imagine that I was always on my side.

Martin:
Very possibly, yeah.

Charlie:
And then I look at people who have really flat back head, back part of their head. I don't really know the- other than cranium, I don't have more vocabulary to give you. But I think that they must have been, you know, lying on their-.

Martin:
OK. I- I- I hadn't really checked out forms of heads before, but I thought-.

Charlie:
Have you not?! Ahh. I used to be very paranoid about it. I got over it, eventually. Yeah. Quite alien-like, isn't it?

Martin:
Yeah. I hadn't really noticed. But now- now you mention it, I can- I can see something. Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. Bit of a ledge.

Martin:
Still- still, I don't think- it's a good head. It's a good head.

Charlie:
Do Italians have a very sensitive opinion around the disciplining of a child as British people do now? I feel like our generation have really gone away from, you know, any kind of physical punishment.

Martin:
Okay, right. I see what you mean. Yeah. I mean I, cert- certainly if you're talking about that, then I would say-.

Charlie:
Again, not thinking about four month, year old.

Martin:
No, exactly. Yeah, let's give it like, a smack for- for being a cheeky monkey. Yeah.

Charlie:
Don't put your head that way when you're sleeping.

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. 'I bloody told you this already.' 'Well, we'll read in this bloody story whether you like it or not.' 'No breast milk for you tonight.'

Charlie:
Bribing. That's another low.

Martin:
Yeah. I mean, I said- maybe find out further down the line. Yeah, certainly. So when we're talking about sort of like physical punishment of like giving someone a smack, I think that's very much frowned upon here as well now, like you said, like in the UK.

Charlie:
For some reason, I can imagine Italians being a little bit less offended by it just because of sort of the-.

Martin:
Yeah.

Charlie:
More emotional, uh, ability to express themselves than British people.

Martin:
Although I have had a mother once of one of my students say- we have to do like these kind of like parents meetings when you have to, like, tell them maybe their child is a bit like misbehaving. And she said to me, like, 'If you need to, like, give him a smack to, to, like, put him in his place,

Charlie:
Wow.

Martin:
Then you can do that. Well, obviously, I didn't take her up on the offer.

Charlie:
Quite wise. Yeah. Actually, I do want to keep my job for now, but as soon as I'm leaving, I will give him a bloody good thumping.

Martin:
Yeah, exactly. So in fact, yeah I suppose I don't really know yet but like yeah I think it's yeah I'm, I'm not 100 percent sure.

Charlie:
So if you wanted to listen to the full conversation, you can easily become a Premium podcast member and get access to all parts of this conversation. And if you want to join a bunch of passionate learners and want to get a good grip on British culture in the most fun and effective way, then head over to www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com and join The Academy.

Charlie:
Guys, if you haven't heard of Martin's channel, or his podcast, sorry, then Rock and Roll English. It's been around lot much, much longer than mine. It's much better than mine. And he's hilarious. So head over there. And the website is https://rockandrollenglish.com

Martin:
Yeah.

Charlie:
Yeah. And everything will be in the show notes. OK, thank you very much though.

Martin:
Thank, thank you very much.