Education
200 - Review of Season 4
In this milestone 200th episode of the American English Podcast, host Shawna reflects on the highlights of Season 4, sharing fascinating statistics, popular episodes, and cultural insights. With a foc...
200 - Review of Season 4
Education •
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Interactive Transcript
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Hi everybody, my name is Shawna and this is the American English podcast.
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My goal here is to teach you the English spoken in the United States.
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Through common expressions, pronunciation tips, and interesting cultural snippets or stories,
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I hope to keep this fun, useful, and interesting.
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Let's do it.
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I can't believe it.
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We made it to episode 200.
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Thank you so much for tuning in.
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Wherever you are in the world, I sincerely hope you feel productive, learning English
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while you're doing other things.
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I know that a lot of you listen to this podcast while you're commuting to work while you're
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cleaning your house, walking around the block, or even working out at the gym, you are multitasking.
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And if you're not multitasking, congrats also.
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You're still learning English and that's great.
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I feel privileged to fill the free space in your day.
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And I hope that continues after episode 200.
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That's right, I'm going to continue after a short break, which we'll get to later on.
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As you may know, this is the very last episode of season 4.
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Season 4 lasted from episode 151 to 200, and it took over two years to create.
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Maybe I should make them shorter, but the point is a lot has happened.
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Today, we're going to start by going over some fun statistics about this season.
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And then we're going to cover what we discussed throughout the past 50 episodes.
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I'm not going to go over everything, it's just too much, but I'll share some of the fascinating
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topics that you guys liked in particular about American culture and history and a lot related
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to language. At the very end, I will give you an overview of what's coming next.
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So stay tuned.
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Let's start with some stats.
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This season, the podcast reached around 25 million downloads, which for a podcast
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is a number that's hard to wrap my head around.
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In other words, it's hard for me to fully comprehend.
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It's hard for me to wrap my head around.
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It still gives me goosebumps.
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Those little bumps on the surface of your skin.
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It's usually what you get when you get cold or if you're scared.
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But you can also get goosebumps when you feel moved.
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So it gives me goosebumps that there's so many people listening.
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Now what really makes me smile isn't the number, but how it's been used recently
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and throughout this season, I've gotten messages from numerous ESL teachers who play these episodes
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in their classrooms and from students, some kids who are tuning in from around the world.
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And that picture of my voice playing in a classroom is just crazy.
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It's so cool how technology can reach so many different places.
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And that makes me just very happy.
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Nearly half of you, about 48% tune in on Apple podcasts,
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while 37% prefer Spotify.
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After that comes CastBox and a variety of other platforms.
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As for where in the world you're listening from,
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the United States makes up the largest group.
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So there are a lot of non-native English speakers in the US who are listening 18%.
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Brazil follows with 9%, Japan with 7%, South Korea and then China.
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But what amazes me is how global English is as a foreign language.
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The last time I checked episodes had been played in nearly every country.
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So pretty cool.
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And that brings me to your favorite episodes.
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And we'll do this by category.
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As you probably know by now, this podcast has about six or seven categories.
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An episode in a category follows a specific format.
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In this season I introduced a new one called Irregular Verb Stories.
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In them I tell a cultural story.
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And within it I weave in 10 Irregular verbs.
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So a verb that is irregular does not have an AD ending in the simple past tense.
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Herde, Eit and Spoke.
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So you hear these words in context.
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Repeat them in a pronunciation exercise.
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Test yourself with a quiz and then listen to the story again.
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So it's a lot of repetition.
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But that's for a reason.
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Irregular verbs require a certain degree of memorization.
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And that repetition helps them stick.
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So apparently that was a good format because the top three performing episodes this season were in
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that category.
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Number one, which was the most popular episode by far was episode 164.2 Irregular verbs with the
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Titanic. So why was this so popular?
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I don't know.
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I'm guessing you guys saw the movie The Titanic with Kate Winflett and Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Maybe.
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And then you wanted to hear the story?
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Yeah, listen to this.
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The Titanic had been sailing smoothly through the icy calm water.
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When suddenly it hit a colossal iceberg.
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Colossal means massive or huge.
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As icy water poured into the lower levels of the ship,
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a wave of panic spread among the passengers.
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Over the next few hours, many came to the realization that the ship would sink.
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So panic spread, people jumped into the icy water,
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swam in place, and many froze to death as the ship sank.
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Right.
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So there's four Irregular verbs right there.
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Spread, swam, froze, and sank.
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To hear the whole episode, check out episode 164.2.
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The second most popular was 168.2 Irregular verbs with the Statue of Liberty.
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And that was a pretty fun episode.
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I learned quite a bit.
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If I remember correctly, the Statue of Liberty or Lady Liberty used to be the color of a penny.
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So the penny is this copper color, but with the ocean air and time, it turned green.
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She turned green.
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Listen to this.
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The Statue of Liberty was a gift from France to the United States in 1886.
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And it commemorates not only the centennial of American independence,
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but the friendship between the two nations.
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It took about nine years to make.
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The exterior was designed by French sculptor Friedrich August Bartol die.
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And the Statue's internal structure was engineered by Gustaf Eiffel.
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Or Gustaf diefell, who later designed the Eiffel Tower.
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The Statue of Liberty is now informally known as Lady Liberty.
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Did you know that?
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That brings me to number three 166.2 Irregular verbs with McDonald's.
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In past seasons, business success stories were pretty popular.
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Starbucks, Coca-Cola, Benning Jerry's.
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Gosh, I'm doing a lot of unhealthy stuff.
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Maybe I'll change that next season.
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So this season, I added McDonald's to the mix.
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Listen to this.
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The story of McDonald's is a tale of American entrepreneurship and the evolution of fast food culture.
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It all began in 1940 when brothers Richard and Marie's McDonald
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opened a barbecue restaurant in San Bernardino, California.
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Initially, their restaurant was called McDonald's barbecue.
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And the service wasn't very fast.
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So what happened next?
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Well, check out episode 166.2.
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You'll learn 10 Irregular verbs.
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If you do.
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So in this season, we also did the Irregular verb episodes on Amelia Earhart,
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the Ferris Wheel created by George Ferris, the story of Diana Niyad,
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and her swim from Cuba to Florida.
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Still can't believe that.
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That's just a crazy story.
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The invention of the microwave, which was sort of funny,
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exploding eggs.
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The survival story of Hugh Glass,
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which is also very impressive.
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It of course inspired the Hollywood film, The Revenant,
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with Leonardo DiCaprio.
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Next up, let's talk about five-minute English episodes.
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In five-minute English episodes, I tell a story
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in which I use all of the terms and phrases I can think of about a specific topic.
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Words and phrases that you might need if you're chatting about that topic.
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So it's real vocab, expressions, collocations.
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It's very vocab rich.
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And that's why I call them fluency one topic at a time.
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If you study a specific episode, I'm fairly confident you will be able to
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have a conversation with a native speaker about that specific topic.
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This season, we went over Home renovation, episode 159,
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the post office, and mail, 163, bad driving 167, swimming 174,
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yard work 181, cats and dogs 185, dentist in the orthodontist 188,
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and the July feature was a day at the beach.
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Can you guess which one was the most popular?
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Drumroll please.
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167, five-minute English, bad driving.
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And this makes me laugh.
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I remember creating this episode and trying to imagine the worst possible driver on the road.
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And everything that person could do wrong.
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And then I described it through a story.
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Now it's sort of silly, but apparently useful.
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So if you are in your car and you want to complain about a bad driver in English,
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or maybe yell in your car about what somebody is doing wrong on the road,
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listen to episode 167.
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Although it's rush hour and you're stuck in traffic,
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the man in the silver truck seems to think he can get ahead of everyone.
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Every time he changes lanes, which is every few seconds, he doesn't turn on his blinker.
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And that drives you nuts.
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You can't help but think, who do you think you are?
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Turn on your blinker, dude.
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Once again, these are fairly short.
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They're practical.
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You can repeat some of the phrases.
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And if you're busy, yeah, it's all the words you need at once.
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So go ahead and check out episode 167.
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And by the way, on the website,
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AmericanEnglishPodcast.com,
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you can find all of the episodes within each category grouped together.
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The next category we had was chats with Shana.
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I'm Shana.
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Now these are more casual than other episodes.
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And while I still explain difficult words and phrases,
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I typically share more about my family and express more opinions in them.
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So this season, we had episode 153, my Christmas memories, plus 10 oxymorons,
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right, things that are contradictory by nature.
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For example, jumbo shrimp.
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Jumbo means large.
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Shrimp can mean small.
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So if you call someone a shrimp, it could mean that they're a short or small person.
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Usually short in stature.
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But jumbo shrimp is what we call shrimp the crustacean, the seafood that you eat
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when they're the big version of that food.
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So jumbo shrimp is an oxymoron.
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Number 165 was culture shock in the United States.
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And 173, 10 must-no southern foods.
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183, what makes you happy?
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I'll go first.
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187, five essential speaking tips for language learners.
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And 193, sharks, swamps, and sweet tea,
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which we talked about our trip to South Carolina.
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And the winner for that category was 165 culture shock in the United States.
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That episode was recorded from Brazil last year.
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My daughters and I and Lucas spent two months in Brazil during the summertime.
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But for Brazil, they were still in school.
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And so I enrolled my two daughters in a Brazilian school.
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So it was a full immersion program sort of.
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I just asked to enroll them and I did.
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And it was a really cool experience.
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But it was also really intense because most of the time I was on my own,
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I needed to rent a car and I needed to drive everywhere because Lucas was working.
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And so there were a lot of moments when I was focused on US culture.
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And comparing myself to the new environment I was in.
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And that meant thinking about food, thinking about driving,
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how people put themselves together in terms of fixing their hair and their makeup.
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I mentioned flags in that episode and patriotism.
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And also some silly stuff like bathroom stalls.
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Take a listen.
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When you go into public restrooms,
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anywhere, at least if there's multiple toilets, there are bathroom stalls.
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Each stall is a little room with three walls and a door.
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Inside is a toilet, toilet paper, etc.
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Public restrooms might have many bathroom stalls.
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They're supposed to give privacy to whoever is using the toilet.
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The thing is, in the United States, they're not very private.
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Most stalls have a big empty space on the bottom.
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So from the floor, maybe up about a foot and a half,
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so that people can see the bottom of your legs.
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So maybe your ankles and your feet.
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And there's also a crack down both sides,
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vertically, so that if you look, or you try to look inside,
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you can actually make eye contact with the person who was sitting on the toilet.
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I guess you guys like hearing about weird random cultural differences.
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So I'll consider doing another one of those in an upcoming episode.
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Next, we have the expression episodes.
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Each expression episode starts with a joke.
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We go through the origin of the expression.
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You hear some examples, three examples, to be precise.
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And then we go through a pronunciation exercise.
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The goal is for you to feel confident enough to use the expression in everyday life.
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So what were the expressions for this season?
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In episode 151, we had to steer clear.
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154, my cup of tea.
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157, to get the ball rolling.
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160, give me some sugar.
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164, to hit rock bottom.
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Number 166, to take it with a grain of salt.
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168, to spread one's wings.
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169, to vanish into thin air.
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171, what goes around comes around.
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178, go big or go home.
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180, to keep one's head above water.
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184, three sheets to the wind.
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190, where their smoke, their fire.
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192, to have a hissy fit.
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And 198, against all odds.
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So what was the most popular expression episode of this season?
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Interesting enough, 164, to hit rock bottom.
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Can you think of something that hit rock bottom literally?
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Titanic.
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So I always try to pair the cultural topic of that episode with the expression.
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It helps me remember them.
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Like automatically I can go, oh yeah, to steer clear, that was about moose.
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My cup of tea was about the Boston Tea Party.
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To have a hissy fit was about snakes, where their smoke, their fire, was about the great
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smoky mountains.
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Three sheets to the wind means drunk.
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That was about wine regions.
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What goes around comes around.
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Was about the Ferris wheel.
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Go big or go home.
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Was about one of the richest Americans in the US, the Vanderbiltz,
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and the Biltmore Estate, the largest house in the United States.
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There were so many.
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That brings us to culture and history.
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Yes, the second part of expression episodes.
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In them, I cover topics like business success stories,
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interesting people in places,
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food, animals,
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holidays, and so much more.
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And the reason is culture and language go hand in hand.
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When you understand culture, it's easier to have conversations with people about culture.
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So I think these are great conversation starters.
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So in season four, we covered a variety of topics.
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The most listened to episode in this category was the Trail of Tears, which is a very sad,
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but true story about the Native American removal in the United States on behalf of the US
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government. And it's when a lot of Native Americans, so Cherokee and a lot of tribes in the south,
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particularly Georgia and North Carolina and South Carolina, when they were forced to move,
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when they were forced to relocate to Oklahoma and central states.
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And along the way, a lot of them died.
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It's part of a very large story about Native American and US
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government relations. And it's sad, but it's true and important to tell.
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The second most popular was actually a little bit more upbeat.
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And it was about the magical world of Harry Houdini.
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As the lights dim and the heavy red velvet curtains part down the middle,
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the audience becomes so silent you can hear a pin drop.
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Then onto the stage comes Houdini himself, his eyes shining with determination.
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And tonight you'll see him defy the impossible.
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Of course, he was a celebrity in magic. He was a magician who really risked his life
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on a regular basis to impress very large audiences. And that episode was just so fun
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watching all those old videos of him putting chains around his wrists and arms and locking
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himself in boxes and then being thrown into lakes and rivers off of bridges.
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So that was a crazy fun episode for me and I'm so glad that you
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liked learning about Houdini also. Then we had episode 196.2.
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A recent one about the Burmese pythons in Florida, the invasive species that are taking over
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the Everglades and how Florida is fighting back. We learned about the bison and the connection
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with Native Americans and how we almost eliminated them and then how they're now back.
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We also learned about the great Smoky mountains and Appalachian culture,
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moonshine, NASCAR roots, bluegrass music, and full-chlor from the mountains.
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So once again the Appalachian mountain range runs all the way from Georgia up towards Canada.
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And there's so much rich culture within Appalachia. And a lot of people in the United States
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say Appalachian and Appalachian but once again in the Appalachian region people say Appalachia
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and Appalachian. So important to remember that. All in all the episodes were pretty diverse,
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which brings me to the category Discover a New State. So in Discover a New State episodes,
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I find someone from around the United States, usually an ESL teacher, and they talk about their
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home state, what it was like growing up there, what are some things you can do as a tourist,
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what are some things you should eat, what you should know. And yeah, there are some fun stories
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in there. In episode 162 we talked to Jackie from the popular YouTube channel Ask Jackie.
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She spoke about Chicago and Illinois. Then in episode 182 we had Tanya Jordaning who grew up in
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Nebraska, which is in the central part of the United States. We heard a lot about her childhood
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growing up in a sort of farming community. Also we talked about Kool-Aid if I remember correctly.
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Then we had Bethany on to talk about Iowa in episode 194. Bethany speaks very clearly,
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which I loved. We talked about her life there. So check out episodes 162, 182, and 194 if you want to
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hear locals from Illinois, Nebraska, and Iowa. So on the personal side, these two years were full
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of activity. We moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina, settled in the Appalachians.
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We survived our first hurricane, Hurricane Helene, made new friends, and even remodeled our house.
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My low, our sweet dog joined the family. And this year I've officially become obsessed with
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baking sourdough and baking in general. So that's my new hobby. My daughters are getting bigger
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and growing braver every year. Lucas is still deep in his music obsession. Recently he's been playing
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a combination of bluegrass and uh, bossanova with our neighbor. They sit out on the back porch and
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jam out. That's something I thought I'd never say. And what a weird random mix of music, right?
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But I guess that's what you get if you have a bluegrass musician and a Brazilian in the same room.
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Anyway, through all of it, I've enjoyed sharing pieces of our story with you. This season I was
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able to meet two listeners who came to Asheville, North Carolina, big shout out to Torsten from Germany
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and Sophie from France. You guys are great. After my episode about mail, I also received a lot of
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nice postcards from you guys. They're now hanging on the wall in my office from over 30 different
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countries. And it makes me so happy to look up at the top of my wall and see them hanging there.
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They're on a nice string and dangle and yeah, so I can look at the back or the front.
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Thank you so much to everyone who sent a postcard. Thank you to everyone who's bought me coffee
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on the Bimeo coffee site. Thank you to all of the premium members, especially the very active learners,
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Shika from Kuwait, Elisa from Italy, Taccaco from Japan, keep it up.
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Last but not least, if you do like this podcast, please leave a review,
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leaving a review on your favorite podcast app helps this podcast gain more visibility and directly
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supports my work. It only takes a few minutes of your time, but it means the world to me.
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So if you could do that, I would really appreciate it. Thank you once again.
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So what's coming in future episodes? I can obviously see that you guys like learning about
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culture and language. So we'll continue with the six episode categories I mentioned,
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but we'll also be adding a bit more grammar. Don't worry, my goal is to make it fun. We'll also be
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doing more episodes with prepositions. I was happy to see that you guys liked the episodes with
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Lucas. I did one in episode 197 and 199. And we just spoke casually. And I quizzed him about
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prepositions along the way. I'll also be focusing on more wild stories, including more inventions,
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more businesses that were created. Many of you requested very specific episodes, specifically about
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the US government, healthcare, our welfare system, and the justice system. I will keep those in mind.
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A few of you have requested that I list episodes based on level. Most all of the episodes
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are between B1 and C1. If you're using the common European framework reference, the C4 scale,
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in layman's terms, that's lower intermediate to high intermediate and advanced. So I don't know.
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What do you guys think about that? Do you think there would be value in labeling the episodes?
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Many of you have also asked about taking classes with me. I will let you know. Big things are coming
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for me and for you if you want to keep learning with this podcast. This next month, I will be
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dedicating a lot more time to the creation of these big new projects. I will be taking a short
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break. So stay tuned. Updates are coming soon. Enjoy the rest of your day. Bye.
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Thank you for listening to this episode of the American English Podcast. Remember,
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it's my goal here to not only help you improve your listening comprehension, but to show you how
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to speak like someone from the States. If you want to receive the full transcript for this episode
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or you just want to support this podcast, make sure to sign up to premium content on American
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English Podcasts.com. Thanks and hope to see you soon.