Season 3, Episode 4 - Sofa Chats on Culture

Charlie Baxter

Listen to the episode here:

If you are a Premium Podcast or Academy Member you can listen to all three parts of this episode without the sponsor in the "course player" section when logged in.
As you are a Premium Podcast Member you can use the transcripts or interactive podcast player for this episode. Enjoy!
As you are a member of The Academy please enjoy this episode in The Academy Lesson.

By Charlie Baxter

Season 3

What's this episode about?

Charlie invites Harry back on for an incredibly relaxed conversation aiming to capture the "real life English" you get when having a chat with a friend on a sofa, without trying to be broadcasters with a clear lesson plan. So welcome to "Sofa Chats". This episode's theme is loosely focused on culture.
Please note: This transcript is only visible to you as you are logged in as a Premium / Academy member. Thank you for your support.

Transcript of S3/E4 - Pt 1 Transcript

Charlie:
Hello and welcome to the British English podcast with your host, Charlie Baxter, and today I have an episode with Harry! And Harry and I do a YouTube channel and we've done it for quite a few years. And at the beginning of doing it, we felt like we were absolute geniuses for discovering a style of footage, and it was called sofa chats. And we recorded like four or five episodes of these. And then we looked back and thought, They're rubbish! They're absolutely rubbish. We can't broadcast these. So what we're going to do today is exactly that.

Charlie:
We're going to do sofa chats. We're going to bring it back. We're going to do it, as well, or hopefully better than before. And we're going to get some real English in there and discover some cultural things because I've got a lovely list of questions, but we're going to keep it relaxed, pretending that we're just on the sofa and we're just having a chat.

Charlie:
So with that in mind, Harry, come on in, have a- have a little sit on the sofa. You could even take off your shoes and tell me how the ruddy hell you are.

Harry:
Hmm. Yeah, I could put on my slippers, sit down next to you on the sofa, slouched back and just chill out. My, yeah, I'm good. Thank you. Nice to be here. Hello, people. This chair, I wish it was more sofa-ry. It's quite hard. It's very rigid. Your chair looks a bit more comfortable. It's like a proper desk chair.

Charlie:
It is, it is a proper desk chair. It's Stacey's company's desk chair that I've stolen from them. They gave it to her during lockdown and it's like- it's like a thousand pounds. And my back was really bad before this chair. And now that they've gone back to the office, she should be taking it back to the office. But I've- I've told her no, and so far they haven't noticed her just standing at the desk.

Harry:
Oh yeah. Stacey, why have you asked for a stand up desk? No reason. Oh, that's how- nice. Yeah, it looks. It looks like an expensive desk chair.

Charlie:
Hmm. Yeah. Feels good, feels good. Yeah.

Harry:
Do you have a like, do you recline quite a lot when you sit on that?

Charlie:
I was, I was reclining a lot earlier. I feel like I should now, but I've got the camera on as well. So it would be a bit weird.

Harry:
Yeah. Hard to feel productive, that kind of angle.

Charlie:
Exactly. But yeah, I just saw you take a sip of almost a pint of water. It didn't look too cold, though. Is that right?

Harry:
Yeah, that's right. This is warm water. I've for some reason got quite a few Chinese students at the moment.

Charlie:
Right.

Harry:
And we've ended up talking about the temperature of their water. And one of my students has a theory. You know that, you know, Chinese people tend to age better than us in the West.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Seems younger and you know, you might see a, like, there's a neighbour. My my parents have a neighbour called Mrs. Smiley. I don't know what her first name is. It's not Mrs. ... called Mrs. Smiley. She's from China. And she looks about 50. She's like, seventy eight or something.

Charlie:
Wow. That's twenty eight years younger.

Harry:
I know. Yeah, I know. It's amazing. She looks great. And I think the secret to her longevity is that she drinks warm water. A lot of my my my Taiwanese students said, Yeah, because here in Taiwan, we always drink warm water or even hot water. I laughed out loud when he said he drinks hot water. I thought, What a nutter. So then I spoke to another Chinese student, Jason, just happens to rhyme with Kaysen. So I've got Kaysen from Taiwan. Jason from China, Jason also drinks hot water. I laughed when he said it.

Charlie:
What, he laughed exactly the same amount again?

Harry:
It was actually Jason who said it first, I laughed- I didn't laugh. I don't think I laughed at Kaysen as well. But he said, I think maybe that could. There could be some logic in that because our body- you know, in the morning, when you drink cold water it's such a shock to the system.

Charlie:
It is. It is. I quite like that shock, in my opinion. It kind of wakes me up. It gets me rehydrated, in my opinion, in my opinion. But yeah, I see what what you mean. Is it the warmness or is it the warm water? Could it, you know, could I, could I get away with warm beer if I could stomach that? And would I be living, looking fifty at seventy eight years old?

Harry:
I think it depends. If it's nice weak, weak beer, then you're still-.

Charlie:
Nice.

Harry:
That's...

Charlie:
Nice 'weak' there.

Harry:
Or horrible, weak beer. But that's what they used to do in Germany, wasn't it? You bored me with a story about that. Having been on some, some brewery tours, they used to hydrate themselves with beer, didn't they? In Germany? Wartime Germany or..?

Charlie:
Yeah, the brewery tour was not a bore. Certainly not a bore. No. But the way I told it was a bore. Yes, it's exactly right. But they didn't, they didn't have it warm. They just had beer. You know, the process of making beer boils the water in in that kind of thing. But yeah, they don't eat- they don't consume it hot.

Harry:
Right. Ok, well if they had, they might have lived a bit longer.

Charlie:
Yeah. Anyway, so yeah, I've heard about- I'm- sorry, I've heard about the idea of Easterners ageing better, and I had an Eastern student. I believe Chinese. And she said that we, we joke about when a male Easterner marries a female Westerner and they think, Oh no, they've done the wrong thing because, you know, in a couple of years that that Westerner is going to deteriorate rapidly. Whereas if it's the other way round they sent, they often applaud it.

Charlie:
They're like, Oh yeah, good decision. Yeah, investment. They'll, they'll, they'll go for- it's kind of like buying a car that doesn't, you know, has a long shelf life. Do you know what I mean?

Harry:
Yeah, that's- that's the dream. Yeah. Whereas if you, if you get us, that's like getting a pretty, like a Vauxhall Nova.

Charlie:
Yeah! A Vauxhall Nova! Exactly, will rust.

Harry:
Like an old Fiat Punto.

Charlie:
Yeah, it will rust within ten years.

Harry:
It's not got- it's not got very good mileage.

Charlie:
No, no, exactly not, right. So that's the small talk. But remember, it's, it's sofa chat, Charlie. So chill out. There's no- there's no real structure. Yeah, yeah. But guys, we've said a lot of vocabulary and I'm going to be making some free worksheets, so go grab them over on www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com

Charlie:
But we're going to go on to a conversation menu. I picked these up a while ago because I thought maybe I could actually have a conversation with my girlfriend, now fiance, thank you very much.

Harry:
Like you never had a conversation with her.

Charlie:
Yeah, because, you know, we ran out of things to talk about, and I think I got these free. But no, no, no, I paid for them. I paid for them. I did. Anyway, the concept is to have four questions per course over a dinner, and it's to cut through the small talk. Get to the juicy stuff in a, in a topic. And I've chosen the topic of culture because it's a culture-based podcast, isn't it, Harry?

Harry:
Mm hmm.

Charlie:
So imagine, if you will, we're on a sofa, but we've got a three course meal coming and we've got a starter and we've got four dishes, if you will, in the starter and the first one, and feel free to ask me back if you don't really have an idea yet. But the first one for culture is what would you like a book to explain to you? What would you like a book to explain to you?

Harry:
The birds and the bees. Well, firstly, I wouldn't- I wouldn't eat a four course meal, sat on a sofa.

Charlie:
Three- three course meal, three meals, with- with four dishes per course.

Harry:
Four dishes per course?

Charlie:
Yeah, but imagine it's like tapas.

Harry:
Ok, all right. If it's tapas, I can eat that sat on the sofa.

Charlie:
Yeah, exactly. Tapas on a sofa. That's the new version of sofa chats.

Harry:
If we got a coffee table with all the tapas like laid out on the coffee table.

Charlie:
Yeah, it's kind of like a blend between that, and I'm imagining us naked as Romans dropping grapes from a height into our mouths...

Harry:
We're naked eating, eating tapas together on the sofa.

Charlie:
Yeah, I feel like we are. No?

Harry:
Well, can I be in my pants?

Charlie:
You can be in your pants...

Harry:
... completely naked.

Charlie:
Well, this seems counter to the fact that you sleep naked whenever when we're in a bed together.

Harry:
Well, yeah, but I'm covered up. Well, if I got a blanket, I've got a blanket on me. Then I don't want to get tapas on the blanket.

Charlie:
Anyway. So what would you like a book to explain to you other than the birds and the bees, which is a nice, nice phrase, which- would you like to explain that one or should I? What do you think?

Harry:
Well, you explain it. You're good at that. You're good at sex.

Charlie:
Ehh, good at sex. Well, there you go. So bird- the birds and the bees is a conversation that the parents often have with the teenage children. When they think that they are starting to come into a period of their life where they're getting romantic with the other gender or, you know, if they're bisexual or, or homosexual, you still need this conversation.

Charlie:
The birds and bees talks about, you know, sex basically and being safe with sex.

Harry:
Yeah, important chat. I don't know if I've ever actually had that conversation. Maybe, maybe I have. But anyway, a book, I would love everyday things because then I could use it with my students as an exercise to teach them everyday vocabulary.

Charlie:
Ok. Yeah, everyday things.

Harry:
... to make a cup of tea, for example. Then that would contain all of the vocab for a student of English to know exactly the right words, the right vocabulary, the right verbs to explain the process of making a cup of tea. But.

Charlie:
Yeah!

Harry:
for everyday actions like that. You see, Charlie, I've always got my students in mind.

Charlie:
You do. You certainly do.

Harry:
It's not about me. It's about what do I want my students to know.

Charlie:
Exactly. Noble. Yeah, sacrificing yourself. It's what a teacher does best, and Harry is an example of that.

Harry:
Always thinking of my students, always. I recently realised that I've be making teas pretty badly, but quite like quite a few years, I've not been- how do you make a cup of tea, Charlie?

Charlie:
I do go the lazy route, but I have been taught by my Australian cousin, weirdly. But he's he's quite like upper class or, you know, he thinks he is. I know that's what I mean. Yeah, but he warms the pot, meaning, he puts the hot water in the mug before and then boils the kettle again almost and then gets it to the boiling degrees. Ah, heh, boiling, and then chucks the old water out that warmed the pot and then puts the the new water in with the tea at the same time.

Harry:
The pot being the mug?

Charlie:
Yes. Yeah, normally they would do it in a teapot, but nowadays we're just...

Harry:
Oh wow, they are posh.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
So he uses a teapot?

Charlie:
Yeah, he does. Yeah.

Harry:
Wow. And little cups and saucers and everything.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. The full, the full works.

Harry:
.. So nice having a proper little tea party. Me and Marina, we did that loads at the start of lockdown. We were like oh, shall we have a tea party!

Charlie:
What, in your house?

Harry:
Yeah, just sat on the sofa naked.

Charlie:
Did you not burn yourself?

Harry:
No, I had a saucer. I wouldn't rest the mug on... But.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
If you are thinking- I don't actually have a coffee table, so I have I've got a pouf or as you would call, a pouffe. I had it on a saucer. Little saucer, cup and saucer.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
I've got a really nice little tea set, actually.

Charlie:
I don't doubt it. Harry, I don't doubt it for a second. Yeah, that's good.

Harry:
I never did that. I never warmed the pot. I would just put the- put the boiling water with one teabag, probably in the teapot. Let it brew for, dunno, a couple of minutes and then dispense it into a cup. I'd have a little beaker with milk in and I'd put the milk in. Pretty normal way of making a cup of tea, actually. But I'll tell you how I've been making tea in a mug because some people don't, you know, can't be bothered to make a tea pot of tea every time.

Harry:
So I was making the mistake of putting the milk in too early. I wasn't fully allowing the tea to infuse. I wasn't letting the tea brew.

Charlie:
To brew, yeah.

Harry:
Yeah, I wasn't allowing it to brew. And so my tea just weren't that flavoursome.

Charlie:
Ah.

Harry:
Flavourful. So I started leaving the tea bag in for longer. I can see in your face you're very entertained. What better topic to talk about on a sofa than tea?

Charlie:
Exactly. Yeah, yeah. I can't blame you. I asked for it. I said, Let's do sofa chats again. Let's bring it back. Yeah, ok. Next question though: what has shaped your taste in interior decoration, Harry?

Harry:
Are you joking? What shaped my- Is this what you do when you're out for a meal with Stacey? You ask your question, right, darling! My darling wife-to-be. Here's a question: if you could learn anything from a book, what would it be? Ah, boring, Stacey! Come on. Next question?

Charlie:
We haven't- we haven't done these questions yet.

Harry:
No, no; what shaped my- my mum. My mum's interior design shaped mine because she was the genius..

Charlie:
The brains.

Harry:
She bought... she's responsible for the majority of colours in this room. She- I gave her money to buy my cushions.

Charlie:
Aww, that's nice of you.

Harry:
She bought me- every lamp I have in here was a birthday present from my mum, and they follow a specific colour scheme.

Charlie:
Which is?

Harry:
Which is a kind of golden, or well, it's kind of coppery. Yeah. Yeah, kind of coppery.

Charlie:
Copper, yeah. Yeah, yeah.

Harry:
And the mirror, the mirror, which also follows that- that colour scheme. So what, I'm going to say my mum, but it's all down to her. I don't really have my own unique interior designing, interior design taste. But.

Charlie:
No...

Harry:
My mum has nice taste. So I've just kind of, yeah,

Charlie:
You've gone with her. Has Marina tried to change it in any way?

Harry:
She's definitely wanted to put her stamp, put her mark on- on the flat. And she's done that by filling the room with photos of herself.

Charlie:
Don't forget me when I'm on the cruise ship here's a photo of me.

Harry:
She is everywhere I turn. Her face is there, which is nice. She has a lovely face, so it's nice to look.

Charlie:
That's good. Yeah, OK. Heaven forbid she would be against the copper vibe that your mother's laid down.

Harry:
No. Yeah, actually, Marina really has got into the whole copper vibe.

Charlie:
Should.

Harry:
She likes it very much. Wait, because we did do some feng shui, which is, yeah, is that Japanese? Feng shui? You know...

Charlie:
I think so.

Harry:
The art of moving things around, creating symmetry in a room and a different mood in the room by moving stuff around?

Charlie:
Yeah. In other words, procrastinating. No, I'm joking. Yeah, I agree.

Harry:
Exactly. That's what we were doing because it was- it was lockdown and I didn't want to work. She wasn't working. So we're like, well,

Charlie:
Let's have tea! What should we do? Yeah.

Harry:
Tea Party?

Charlie:
We've just done that. Shall we move stuff around? All right.

Harry:
We moved stuff around yesterday.

Charlie:
Would you like another photo?

Harry:
Yeah, let's take another photo of me. It was. It was nice. And she got into that. So good activity. Good activity. Yeah, good. What about what about you, though? Where did you get your taste? But you've definitely got an artistic, a nice kind of eye for what looks good in a room. You definitely have.

Charlie:
I think I've, I like keeping it clean and tidy. I'm a bit obsessed with that, but I think Stacey has definitely influenced me. Before, I just had a, I know it doesn't really count being at uni, but I had just like a speaker on the table and like a one lamp. And I thought that was that was cool. I thought that was good. But it was...

Harry:
Was your lamp illuminating a camera?

Charlie:
Illuminating a camera?

Harry:
Like, you've got behind you.

Charlie:
Oh no, no, no, I was. I was years away from this genius behind me.

Harry:
It looks good. It looks good though, like some sort of thing. Does that camera need the light, the lamp on it? Is it like, is that keeping it, keeping the battery up, or was it...

Charlie:
Oh, yeah, it does need to be in a warm area at all times.

Harry:
Yeah, it looks nice. But yeah, you have a nice eye for detail. So I think everybody uni has got a speaker on a table.

Charlie:
Yeah, I know. Yeah, I think Stacey has helped me. I mean, she's- she's a designer for God's sake. So yeah, naturally, she's shown me a bit more design. But you know, many times I'll still come back from the shops and she'll be like, What are you doing? No. Take it back.

Harry:
What kind of- what kind of thing has that happened with? Like, you bought a cushion or something? She was like, That is horrific.

Charlie:
I don't go near cushions. That's, yeah, I can't. I can't touch a cushion. She'll remove it from our sight even before it's through the door. No, I don't go near that because, well, she gets a lot of free cushions from work, so that's, probably not.

Charlie:
I probably shouldn't say that. Well, what do I bring to the table?

Harry:
Cameras.

Charlie:
That plant! I really like plants!

Harry:
That plant!

Charlie:
I like plants. Yeah.

Harry:
And photos. That- that photo in the middle.

Charlie:
Yeah!

Harry:
Absolutely beautiful. There we go. And that was my drone. So I took an aerial photo of Stacey in a rock pool. There we go.

Charlie:
Oh, I didn't realise Stacey was in it. Yeah. I mean, this doesn't bode- this doesn't go down great for a podcast, but yeah, there's a nice photo. Just imagine a rock pool and lots of white water crashing against the- the rocks. And then there's a rock pool with Stacey in it. Lovely.

Harry:
Beautiful. Yeah. Well, Stacey's not the centrepiece. You can't really see her.

Charlie:
No, I wanted it to be subtle. I didn't want to sort of do a Marina and make it all about her.

Harry:
That's good, to do a Marina, to do a- do a Harry, do a Charlie. Oh.

Charlie:
I suppose it just means to do something like that person. But it's incredibly colloquial, isn't it?

Harry:
It is. Yeah, yeah, it's very colloquial. Yeah, we do, we say a lot often to like mock someone or...

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. If someone's, someone's, you know, forgotten something, you say, Oh, he's done a Harry, for example.

Harry:
Exactly. What would it be to, if someone said, Oh, he's done a Charlie? What would you assume that someone has- shat the bed?

Charlie:
No, no. I haven't done that for a few years, actually. I think probably. Oh, double booked myself. Yeah, I'm terrible with personal calendars. I'm really bad. I put work first. Although there was a story recently where my Academy Members, I was driving over to a friend's house to help her move her furniture into her new place with Stacey on a Sunday. And it was about 7pm or six fifty. I was on the motorway going over and then I got a little alert on my phone, on my watch, saying You've got ten students in ten minutes for an Academy class.

Charlie:
And I was like, Agghh! I've forgotten, forgotten about the class! So I had to do an immediate U-turn, crashed into a couple of cars, but managed to get home on time and teach the class. Stacey got an Uber. No, no. Stacey took the car and I got an Uber over an hour later.

Harry:
Oh, good for you. Well done for getting back for it, though,

Charlie:
Yeah, I was stressed, it's very stressed. But I did actually manage to get back on time, maybe one minute late, but yeah.

Harry:
Oh, well done. Did you have- did you have to just come up with a lesson plan on the way back or did you already have a lesson planned?

Charlie:
I did have to come up with something on the way back.

Harry:
Sofa chat- right, guys?

Charlie:
Yeah, exactly. Right. Let's go on to another question. If someone were to make a film of bits of your life, what might be key elements of the plot? This is, these are big, big questions, aren't they?

Harry:
That would be a sad film.

Charlie:
But, you know, maybe, maybe think about certain parts of your life, your childhood, your teenage years humping a lamp. Surely that's got to feature.

Harry:
Humping a lamp? Oh. I've never humped that lamp behind Charlie, in case anyone's wondering.

Charlie:
No, no.

Harry:
I only hump lamp posts. It's kind of a rule. So what would be the main chapters or like highlights of the film?

Charlie:
Yeah. If someone were to make a film of bits of your life, what might be the key elements of the plot? Oh, sorry. Ok, so a bit different. Maybe. The key elements?

Harry:
That's an interesting one. Well they could just take like a- one little portion. It could be a love story, and it could just be about me and Marina. That could be.

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Yeah, that's two years. We've been together two years now, so that's enough for, don't know how it ends yet, but.

Charlie:
Ends on a cliff-hanger, for now.

Harry:
Yeah. Sequel Perfect. I love a sequel.

Charlie:
Yeah, yeah. Double dip with that Hollywood blockbuster. Yes, please. Five hundred million. Yeah. And the next.

Harry:
Be a double disc DVD. Do you remember when they used to buy like VHS and there'd be two videos in one?

Charlie:
Oh.

Harry:
I think there was sometimes...

Charlie:
Yeah, I think so. Do you mean the VHS? Are we talking about?

Harry:
VHS, it's like a massive box with two, two videos.

Charlie:
Ah, vaguely. I'm stuck on the DVD. You know, when they've got the plastic insert that rattles around when you open it.

Harry:
Oh, right, what, the little leaflet thing?

Charlie:
No, no, no. Like when there's two in there, you open it and there's this extra...

Harry:
Oh, it's like, flapping.

Charlie:
Yeah, flapping around like...

Harry:
Oh I hate that. Well, that's exactly what my DVD is going to look like, by the way.

Charlie:
Good, good.

Harry:
Well, yeah, that's a really, that's a really interesting one. Is anything coming to your head for you? You've had a very interesting life. Full of adventure.

Charlie:
Well...

Harry:
There has to be some travelling in it?

Charlie:
Yeah.

Harry:
Why don't we say, if I- why don't I choose some chapters in your life for a film and you choose some from mine? There's probably more interesting. You know, you have to be really up yourself to make a film about yourself.

Charlie:
Oh, I was ready to. I was ready to. I was ready to suggest of my life. But yeah, I'm joking. I'm joking!

Harry:
Well, that makes sense.

Charlie:
Yeah. No, yeah, I like that. Ok, what do you think of me? Where would you go with my plot?

Harry:
I think...

Charlie:
... Elements of the plot. "I've got nothing, Charlie."

Harry:
Well, your time at uni. Yeah, because that's where you met me. We could do like the story of story of roots, slash the story of-.

Charlie:
The story of our friendship! You know...

Harry:
The story of our friendship.

Charlie:
It's been a fantastic journey. And there's been some. There's been some heartbreak. There's been some excitement. There's been some, you know, real ups and downs. But, you know, mainly huge laughter, but.

Harry:
Mainly huge laughter. There's definitely been some tears.

Charlie:
It's been- I think it's a crowd pleaser, a family, friendly, family-friendly movie.

Harry:
Yeah, yeah. A film for the family.

Charlie:
Yeah. And until, until it's night time and you take your boxers off.

Harry:
Yeah, but you got to have those moments, you've got to have those moments. Oh God.

Charlie:
Oh, dear. But unfortunately, we are out of time for Part One, so we will leave that there. We might continue the plot of our friendship in Part Two, but we've got the main course and dessert to get through. So we've got plenty to talk about. But yeah, we'll leave Part One there.

Charlie:
Guys, if you haven't already, go over to www.thebritishenglishpodcast.com to get the free worksheet. And yeah, you can find the transcripts for the, in the Premium podcast and plenty more learning resources in the academy. But yeah, thank you very much, Harry. I hope you enjoyed it. We'll say goodbye to Part One people right now, and we'll continue in Part Two.

Harry:
Bye, Part One people.

Charlie:
Excellent, goodbye!

Charlie:
We will be leaving Part One there for today, but don't worry, we have Part Two and Three round the corner for you to enjoy. But first, make sure you utilise all of the learning resources available to you for this part. And then when ready, I'll see you in Part Two to continue the conversation. Thanks again for supporting me. This is my full time job. So, here's to many more episodes of the British English podcast to help you improve your English.

Continue listening to this episode

There are 2 more parts to this episode and you can access all of them by becoming a Premium Podcast Member or by joining The Academy.
PART TWO
members only
Already a Premium Podcast Member?
Click Here & Enjoy!
Already a member of The Academy?
Click Here & Enjoy!
PART THREE
members only
Already a Premium Podcast Member?
Click Here & Enjoy!
Already a member of The Academy?
Click Here & Enjoy!
Meet today's guest

Harry

Charlie & Harry are co-founders of Real English With Real Teachers YouTube Channel

Harry has been teaching English as a foreign language for over six years, both in language academies and privately online. After graduating in Psychology, Harry took a trip to South East Asia where he discovered a passion for teaching and languages.

Harry currently resides in Bedford, UK, where he teaches online and hosts residential English courses
Write your awesome label here.
access the free content

Get the FREE worksheet for 
this episode

Enjoy!

Want the transcripts?

Access the manually edited transcripts using the world's leading interactive podcast transcript player and get your hands on the
full glossary and flashcards for this episode!
  • Downloadable Transcripts
  • Interactive Transcript Player
  • Flashcards
  • Full Glossary 

Transcript of SAMPLE Premium Podcast Player

Podcast host: Charlie:
This will be quite a bit harder for you to understand, as there are a number of accents in the conversation, some poorly delivered at times, as you will notice.

Podcast host: Charlie:
But the aim is to give you a variety of dialects in one conversation and some dialogue to give you native expressions in context. So enter, if you will, to Charlie's pub and his imaginary world.

Character: Mike:
Alright geezer, how's it going?

Character: Chris:
Yes, I'm well thanks. How about you? Have you had a good day?

Character: Mike:
Can't say good mate. No my old man he's been giving me a right old earful for what happened on site last week.

Character: Chris:
Oh that's a pity. Are you back on your dad's building project again?

Character: Mike:
Sad to say mate, but yeah, I am. Couldn't resist this one though. Cash in hand, you know.

Character: Chris:
Oh fair play, hard to resist those I imagine. Oh, here she is.

Character: Emily:
Oh, hi.

Character: Chris:
I was wondering if you're ever going to join us tonight.

Full Length Episodes

Interactive Transcript Player

Full
Glossaries

Downloadable Transcripts

Do you want to join the best online course
 for British culture and British English?

Get access to The British English Podcast Academy
Already a member of The Academy? Sign in here

DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND FAMILIAR TO YOU?

Drag to resize
1. You struggle to understand British people, their humour and accents!

2. You find it hard to measure your progress when learning English?

3. You want to learn to speak with confidence in front of British people?

4. You find it hard to keep up with multiple speakers in a conversation.

5. You’re looking for an easy to use step-by-step plan to help you improve your English?

If you answered yes, then you already know how challenging it is to keep improving your English after reaching a conversational level!

Don't worry! There's a solution and I think you're going to love it!

Reviews from members of The Academy

I'd like to recommend the academy because...its contents are very interesting and authentic so, you learn a lot about British culture, be it in respect of society, habits and traditions and all with a touch of humour, which I really appreciate. 
Julie, France. Joined in August, 2021
Drag to resize
Write your awesome label here.
Drag to resize
Write your awesome label here.
My big problem has always been fluency but now I can tell proudly that I'm much more confident and I'm not more afraid to talk.

Eight months ago when I started this amazing journey I never imagined that today I would record this video and put myself out there without feeling pure cringe.
Caterina, Italy. Joined in February, 2021
"Charlie's podcast and academy is easy to follow and helps me remember every word he teaches by following the quizzes and exercises. He is such a good teacher with specific plans for his own lessons who knows the difficulties of a non-native english learner like me."
Hsu Lai
Pharmacist, Myanmar
"It's evident that Charlie has put so much effort into The Academy and I will definitely recommend The British English Podcast to anyone wanting to improve their English and to my subscribers on Instagram! The Academy is really easy to use and it has a lot of useful tasks."
Anya
English Teacher, Russia
Charlie is very good at showing people when the new words and phrases can be used. It helps me to really apply the phrases in the future. The rise and fall of his voice also makes the content more interesting as I can feel the different emotions from him.

Judy
Taiwan
Drag to resize
What I like most about The Academy is the live classes where you can apply what you learnt from The Academy.

He breaks down difficult concepts easily but the best part is that he teaches English in real life that you can easily use in your daily conversation.
Phong, Vietname. Joined in February, 2021
Drag to resize
Write your awesome label here.
Drag to resize
Write your awesome label here.
The academy content hones, not only on the vocabulary from intermediate to Advanced but it also packed with humour, as the host, Charlie really breaks down the expressions in every video of every episode, helping their vocabulary sink in and be used, actively in your speech.
Julia, Russia. Joined in July, 2021

Learn more about The Academy

Not sure of your 
English level?

Take the free English test, it only takes a few
minutes and you'll receive your results immediately

Listen to the show on-the-go wherever you get your podcasts.

Drag to resize

Never miss an episode!

Join the Podcast Newsletter to get weekly updates on newly published shows, courses and more right in your mailbox.
Keep an eye on your email inbox. 😉

FREE Resources

All you need to do is to sign up for FREE and all the resources below are available for you to enjoy!
\Learnworlds\Codeneurons\Pages\ZoneRenderers\CourseCards
FIND OUT MORE ABOUT THE CHARITY THAT
CHARLIE IS DONATING 1% OF ALL SALES TO:

The Life You Can Save

A charity that makes “smart giving simple” by curating a group of nonprofits that save or improve the most lives per dollar. They aim to create a world where everyone has an opportunity to build a better life and where there’s no suffering or death due to extreme poverty.
If you are already a member of the show as a Premium Podcast or Academy member please know that Charlie is forever thankful that you are helping him to contribute a modest yet stable amount to the people, he believes, who really need our help.

About Your Teacher

Charlie Baxter

Teacher, Podcast Host, YouTuber
Charlie is the host and creator of The British English Podcast & Academy. He has also been an active YouTube English Teacher since 2016 but after seeing how many of his students wanted a more structured, carefully designed way to study he decided to create The British English Podcast Academy.

It focuses on British culture, informal expressions, accent and history that is all unique to the UK.

Charlie has spent 6000+ hours teaching intermediate-advanced students since 2014 privately on Skype and has seen a lot of different styles of learning and while he believes there will never be a single CORRECT way to improve your English there are a large number of methods that people use that do waste people's time and prevent them from improving quickly.

So Charlie decided to create The Academy because he believes he knows a VERY effective way to improve your English quickly and enjoyably.