34: British Etiquette

02/05/24 • 21 min

Easy English: Learn English with everyday conversations

Today, the duo talk about the strange cultural rhetorical greeting "y'alright?" How to be the giver... and receiver of it, before going into the Topic of the Week, discussing typical British etiquette around queuing for buses, cashier desks and buying rounds of drinks. Long-time member James also asks us a question about teaching English in our regular segment of Unhelpful Advice. If you would also like to ask us a question, go to easyenglish.fm.

Interactive Transcript

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Show Notes

British Etiquette video: WHAT is Considered RUDE In the UK? (Easy English 172)

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Good evening.

Isi:
[0:23] Good evening Mitch, how are you doing?

Mitch:
[0:27] Very well, thank you. Yeah, how would it be done... I'm thinking of 1930s/40s Britain. Hello welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:35] Alright. (Alright?) Alright (Are you alright?) Are you alright?

Mitch:
[0:40] And always the answer; yeah you? But never really meaning it.

Isi:
[0:43] Yeah me to, thanks, thanks, bye. Such a stupid conversation, really.

Mitch:
[0:52] Yeah you? Welcome to the Easy English Podcast... I said that already.

Isi:
[0:55] By the way, I always walk on when people ask me that, I always say like; yeah... and then I just go and I make the 'yeah' so long that I don't have to ask 'and you', because then I think in my German manners, that I have to wait for the answer that nobody wants to give me anyway, so always I'm like; oh yeah, yeah, yeah. Thank you, yeah. And then I just make a chewing gum and I'm already around the corner. (Oh really?) I did it yesterday, in the hallway, with one of the builders.

Mitch:
[1:22] Oh yeah, he said; "hey, yeah, you alright?"

Isi:
[1:24] Yeah, and I was just like; oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. And I just went on.

Mitch:
[1:29] You don't even need to respond.

Isi:
[1:31] Yeah, you should say; yeah, how are you? But then nothing comes back. And that is for me, a weird end of a conversation, right?

Mitch:
[1:39] Yeah, I find it weird. It happened also to me we were in the park and two school girls got jumped on by Nola, in a loving way.

Isi:
[1:46] Well, they provoked her to jump on her. They were running at her like... While running at her they were like; is she friendly? And we were like; yeah. So basically, they jumped on her.

Mitch:
[1:57] And then I said... because I was actually asking; are they all right? I was like; are you all right? And she went; "yeah you?" And then I realised; oh she thinks I'm asking like; are you alright? Like, how are you?

Isi:
[2:12] That is really... we had another podcast I think in the very beginning where we talked about this and it's still a big topic for me. I find it weird, because it's also about the intonation.

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Interactive Transcript

Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Show Notes

British Etiquette video: WHAT is Considered RUDE In the UK? (Easy English 172)

Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:22] Good evening.

Isi:
[0:23] Good evening Mitch, how are you doing?

Mitch:
[0:27] Very well, thank you. Yeah, how would it be done... I'm thinking of 1930s/40s Britain. Hello welcome to the Easy English Podcast.

Isi:
[0:35] Alright. (Alright?) Alright (Are you alright?) Are you alright?

Mitch:
[0:40] And always the answer; yeah you? But never really meaning it.

Isi:
[0:43] Yeah me to, thanks, thanks, bye. Such a stupid conversation, really.

Mitch:
[0:52] Yeah you? Welcome to the Easy English Podcast... I said that already.

Mitch:
[1:22] Oh yeah, he said; "hey, yeah, you alright?"

Isi:
[1:24] Yeah, and I was just like; oh yeah, thank you. Yeah, yeah. And I just went on.

Mitch:
[1:29] You don't even need to respond.

Isi:
[1:31] Yeah, you should say; yeah, how are you? But then nothing comes back. And that is for me, a weird end of a conversation, right?

Mitch:
[1:39] Yeah, I find it weird. It happened also to me we were in the park and two school girls got jumped on by Nola, in a loving way.

Isi:
[1:46] Well, they provoked her to jump on her. They were running at her like... While running at her they were like; is she friendly? And we were like; yeah. So basically, they jumped on her.

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Previous Episode

33: British Buses

This week, we answer Arthur's question on improving one's English when nervous to speak. But the main topic is about Britain's transport network, notably it's iconic buses. We talk double-deckers, Megabuses, thanking the driver, tapping on, cashless buses, USB buses, plus dog, bikes, prams drinking on buses.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch:
[0:23] (Hey!) Hello Easy English peeps, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, how are you doing?

Isi
[0:30] That sounds so radio show-ish. Are you not into our podcast Mitch? My voice is a bit weird today isn't it?

Mitch:
[0:37] It's the second coffee podcast we've ever done. It's always a bit of a weird feeling. Uh, before we start with today's topic, I want to do a quick Unhelpful Advice / Your Messages section. Sound good? (Go for it.)

Unhelpful Advice

Mitch:
[0:59] We have, yeah this isn't a question, it's just a statement; "Easy English Podcast". There you go. (That was it?) Yeah that was it.

Isi
[1:09] Oh hello, then. That was hello wasn't it?

Mitch:
[1:12] Yeah.

Isi
[1:12] That was a greeting, maybe.

Mitch:
[1:14] Thank you for calling in. Uh yeah, that's us, that's our name, don't wear it out. Thank you for calling in. Our next one is um actually a question from uh someone who left us an audio message, who goes by the name of Arthur? I'd say Arthur, but i don't... that's very um... it's a very British sort of pronunciation.

Isi
[1:40] Think it's a name that is used in a lot of different languages. But maybe in a different way. Arthur, Arthur.

Mitch:
[1:46] Did you have a cartoon show called Arthur. And it's called yeah 'Hey Arthur'? (Yeah, yeah, yeah.) Did you? (I think I know that yeah, is that Nickelodeon?) Yeah! (Yeah, I know it yeah.) What a wonderful time to play, hey! And he had a sister called DW. (That is weird.) and his Neighbors were rhinoceroses and he was like a weird...

Isi
[2:06] His name was rhinoceros

Mitch:
[2:07] The neighbours were rhinoceroses and he had a crush on an elephant and he... but he was like a weasel or something. (Cute.) With glasses on. This isn't from a weasel with glasses on. This is from a normal person called Arthur. Here we go; "Hi, everyone. I am Arthur. I want to learn English, because I think, when I try to talk, to speak, it's very basic, because my vocabulary is minimal than the others. When I try to talk, with other person, maybe the other person might understand me, but I think so, that I need to speak very well, to have more vocabulary, I try to express it, maybe it sometimes it's very difficult to me, but I never... I think so that I'm nervous about speaking English. Thank you very much".

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Next Episode

35: The Car-Cast

This week, Mitch and Isi bring you the podcast from the Easy English-mobile. Mitch is drving whilst Isi navigates the infamous Antwerp bottle-neck into the JFK tunnel. And what better situation than to discuss driving in the UK. The duo discuss, roundabouts, service station, exploding tyres, car fridges, speed limits and drunk French drivers.

Interactive Transcript

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Transcript

Intro

Mitch & Isi:
[0:27] So, welcome to the Easy English Podcast from the streets, just entering Belgium. From the A67 in Belgium. Today is a special episode. - It's a special episode. - Is this even legal, what we're doing? - Why? - Are you allowed to podcast while driving? -

We're not watching anything or listening to anything, we're just talking. - I know, but multitasking is hard. - We normally talk in the car. As we were talking about public transport, this is not public transport, I mean for Nola it is, kind of, but it is transport.

And we thought, as we, so many times go back and forth between Germany, and England and France also, sometimes, around Europe, that we will do an episode from the car.

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