learn australian english accent Archives - Aussie English https://aussieenglish.com.au/tag/learn-australian-english-accent/ An online classroom to learn Australian English Fri, 29 Sep 2023 07:40:27 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.6.2 https://aussieenglish.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/cropped-Aussie-english-podcast-logo-32x32.jpg learn australian english accent Archives - Aussie English https://aussieenglish.com.au/tag/learn-australian-english-accent/ 32 32 AE 967 – Expression: Have Balls https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-967-expression-have-balls/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-967-expression-have-balls/#comments Sun, 18 Jul 2021 09:00:00 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=163068 AE 967 – EXPRESSION: Have Balls Learn Australian English in this expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast. These episodes…

The post AE 967 – Expression: Have Balls appeared first on Aussie English.

]]>

AE 967 - EXPRESSION:

Have Balls

Learn Australian English in this expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast.

These episodes aim to teach you common English expressions as well as give you a fair dinkum true-blue dose of Aussie culture, history, and news and current affairs.

pete smissen, host of the aussie english podcast, english expression, english idioms, have balls, have balls meaning, english idioms with the word ball, what is have balls, use have balls in a sentence

In today's episode...

I am going to teach you all about the English expression “have balls”.

You and your funny brain is thinking of male body organs, isn’t it?

Surprise, this expression expression does have something to do with it!

This week’s exciting story is about a “ballsy” teenager who drove away a bear to protect her dogs — there, you see the word “ballsy”?

This episode is packed with real life examples on where and how you can use the expression “have balls”.

Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

Watch & listen to the convo!

Listen to today's episode!

This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

Listen to today's episode!

Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

Transcript of AE 967 - Expression: Have Balls

G'day, you mob and welcome to Aussie English, I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken Down Under. So whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flippin' hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go!

G'day, you mob! How's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English and get a fair dinkum dose of Aussie culture, history, news, current affairs, everything like that. If you are trying to fit in Down Under, learn more about Australia as well as level up your English, this is the podcast for you guys.

So I'm your host. Pete, thank you for joining me. If you are a long time listener, welcome back. It's always a pleasure to have you guys here and to see a familiar face. If you're a new listener and this is the first time, welcome! It's also a pleasure to have you here.

So how's my week been? My week has been OK this week. I've been doing a bit of bird photography, which has been a lot of fun. It's kind of cathartic, relaxing. It allows me to take my mind off things and just get out in the great outdoors and, you know, be at one with nature.

So I've recently been going to places like Clifton Springs, Port Arlington, Indented Heads, and doing some photography of seabirds, in particular pelicans. And I'm sure you guys know what a pelican is right there. These huge birds that have long bills with this weird kind of pink throat underneath it that's very stretchy. And they kind of scoop up fish with that bill and large throat thing. I don't know what the term would be for it, but they seem to always be around and they're easy to photograph.

So I was out a few days ago and took some really cool photos of them and just played around with black and white photography. But they just such weird birds, man. They're always so weird. And when there's two of them together, they seem to always have these weird interactions where they're bickering, they're fighting and they're just- I don't know, they just- they're just the funniest birds, man. So they're great. If you love photography, I definitely recommend getting out to the coast, especially if you're down here in Victoria and taking some photos of pelicans. You'll pretty much see them anywhere there's a boat ramp because they love hanging out where there are boats from fishermen because they like to get fed. Right. I think the fishermen tend to like giving them food.

Before we get into today's episode, guys, and the weekly news story that I've got for you, which is a ripper, it's a bit of a funny news story. You'll like this one. Don't forget that if you want access to the premium podcast, which gives you the transcripts, the downloads, the premium podcast player so you can read and listen at the same time, gives you the video lessons with vocab video clips, everything designed to help you if you're a visual learner like me, gives you access to all that sort of stuff, just go to www.aussieenglish.com.au/podcast and sign up.

All right. So let's get into the news story. So this week, a 17 year old girl named Hailey has had a lucky escape and been hailed a hero after she went toe to toe with a female black bear in California in the United States of America. CCTV captured the moment the black bear and her two cubs were walking along the fence of Hailey's house. Startled, her dogs, went into attack mode and ran out into the garden, barking at the bear. Initially, Hayley thought it was just a dog or squirrel that was causing all the commotion. But when she looked out the window, she noticed that there was a bear attacking her dogs. As the bear cubs bailed into the distance, the mother bear was seen balancing on the fence, scooping up the smallest of Hailey's dogs. Before she had time to think, Hailey ran out of a house and punched the mother bear off the fence in order to save her dog and send the bear and her family running for the hills.

She managed to escape the encounter intact and bearing no scars at all except for a sore, twisted finger. Not bad, considering she went face to face with a mama bear and didn't come off the worse for wear. So good job, Hailey.

All right. So, yeah, incredible story there. That is the kind of thing you are never going to see in Australia, someone punching a bear unless it was a koala bear. Technically, they're not bears. And I don't know why you would ever punch one, because they're not vicious. Maybe if it was a drop bear, but you don't really come into contact with those very often.

Anyway, I got a joke for you guys. So slap the kookaburra and let's get into the joke. All right, so the joke is related to bears, obviously, that's what today's episode is all about and it's a funny one. Are you ready, are you ready? What do pandas pack for camping trips. So pandas are these bears that are black and white. They eat bamboo. I think they're one of the only, if not the only herbivorous bear. They live in China. Pandas. What do pandas pack for camping trips? Just the 'bear' necessities.

Look for them. Bare necessities. If you've seen The Jungle Book, you might know that song tut-tut-da-da-ra-rah bare necessities. I think it's that, right, that bears and bare necessities. That's when Mowgli's singing with the bear, "bare necessities". So here the play on words is the word bear spelled B E A R, which is a large, heavy mammal that walks on the soles of its feet, has thick fur and a very short tail. It's in the dog family, but it's omnivorous. Right? So it eats both meat and berries and plants. Bears, I'm sure you know what a bear is.

Bare spelled B A R E is without addition. Right. Basic, simple. So 'bare necessities'. This is a good collocation for you guys. If you have the bare necessities, B A R E, it is that you just have enough. Right. It is just sufficient resources with nothing to spare. So if you went camping with the bare necessities, it's that you only have enough to get by. Nothing extra, right. Just the food you need, just the tent you need. That's it. Maybe a sleeping bag as well so you don't get cold at night.

So today's expression is to "have balls". A little bit of a rude expression, but it's used quite a lot in Australia and I think probably everywhere in the English speaking world. So I thought it was pertinent, I thought it would be worth telling you guys how to use this expression: to have balls. To have the balls to do something: to have balls.

Before I define the expression, let me break down the words in it. So, you know the verb "to have". I have a pen. I have a pen in my hand. It means to possess that thing. Right. I possess this pen.

"Balls" and I'm not going to show you those. This is obviously a spherical object that you can play with in terms of it being an actual ball from a ball sport. But this is vulgar, informal slang that is used for a man's testicles. Right, balls.

So I was out in the garden the other day playing with Noah. He threw a ball at me and it hit me in the balls and that was pretty unpleasant. True story.

So a man's balls are the sexual organs that produce sperm and testosterone, right? They are his testicles. Balls.

So there are a few expressions about balls that we use in this sense in English. And I'm sure, I am absolutely certain that you have them in your language as well. It tends to be a common theme in all the languages I've ever learnt. They'll have something related to testicles.

So if you have balls, you are courageous, you are brave, and it can be used for both men and women. You know, it's kind of almost used, ironically, when you say it about a woman, right? Well, she's got balls because she obviously doesn't have balls. But at the same time, she does. If she's courageous, if she's brave.

We also have the adjective "ballsy", if you are ballsy of something. It was ballsy. It is that that thing was brave. That thing was courageous. So that was a ballsy effort. Wow. That was really ballsy.

We've also got the expressions "to take a lot of balls". To do something usually, right, meaning requires a lot of courage or bravery. It took a lot of balls to ask your boss for a raise, right? Took a lot of balls to do that. I admire bravery. I admire courage. I admire your balls.

And then lastly, to have the balls to do something. Again, this is kind of used to have the courage and bravery, but almost in a kind of arrogant or audacious way. "You know, I can't believe he had the balls to ask for a raise. Far out!" That was really, really- kind of annoyed me, but was very brave at the same time.

Now, just bear in mind, guys, there is quite a few other ball related expressions in English. One is "to have a ball" and this has nothing to do with testicles. This instead has to do with "a ball", meaning "a gala dance", right. Where people dress up in dresses and suits and they do a lot of dancing and eating and drinking and just have a lot of fun. They have a ball and that's what the expression means. If you have a bowl, you have a great time.

So the origin of the expression "to have balls". "To have balls", no idea where this originally comes from. It's probably been with us since the beginning of time. But expressions like these are common in many languages. And I bet that you can tell me one in your language that has something to do with being macho, being manly, being brave, being courageous.

So now let's go through a few examples of how I would use the expression to have balls in English. But before we do that.

Did you know that reading whilst listening to English is the best way to learn new vocabulary? Research shows that this is much more effective than just reading material or just listening to material in English. It's the best way to learn and remember vocab reading. Listen at the same time. That's why every single episode of the Aussie English podcast comes with a full transcript. So you can do exactly that: read whilst you listen. In fact, there's over 900 episodes and transcripts to go with them. You can download the PDF, you can print it, you can write notes on it, you can highlight new vocabulary. And most importantly, you can read whilst you listen to each episode. Also, members get access to the premium podcast player that shows the text and moves it up the screen whilst you are reading and listening on your phone, your tablet or your computer.

So if your goal is to learn and remember more vocabulary, to expand your vocab in English, make sure that you sign up to become a premium podcast member today at www.aussieenglish.com.au/podcast Let's get back to the episode.

Ok, so example number one. So my great grandfather served in France in the First World War. In the years 1916 to 1918 and he was an Army chaplain. He had the job of marking the injured soldiers on the battlefield who'd been shot or wounded. So he used to have to run out from safety, from cover, and plant these little white flags next to people who were still alive and could be saved.

As a result of his efforts and his bravery and his courageousness, he ended up being awarded with the Military Cross, two times! His efforts obviously bore a lot of fruit and he likely saved many lives. Whenever I heard about this story, growing up, from people like my dad and my mum, I always thought, man, he had a lot of balls to do what he did. The effort that he put in was really ballsy. I couldn't believe he had the balls to go out into no man's land where people were shooting at him and save the lives of other people. How courageous. Must have taken a lot of balls, must have required a lot of bravery.

Example number two, imagine that you're a young woman who started working at a law firm. So you're incredibly hard working, talented, tenacious. After a few years of working in this firm, you end up tackling a really difficult case and you have to bring to bear all your skills to do a great job and make it a success, which you managed to do. Afterwards, you approach one of the partners at the firm and you ask to be given a raise or maybe even be promoted to being a partner as a result of your incredible job. So you're so good. You're putting all the other lawyers to shame at the law firm. They're impressed with your work. They think that you've got incredible balls coming up to them and asking for a raise; that was really ballsy. You know, they couldn't believe you had the balls to ask for a raise. So they decided to give you a raise. Right. This woman's got balls. Wow. Give her a raise. Make her a partner.

Example number three, so one day you're driving to work and you witness a huge traffic accident. Right? So maybe there's this huge petrol tanker truck that comes past. Somehow it loses control, tips over, explodes into flames, other cars crash. It's just a nightmare, right? There's a lot of carnage and chaos.

You pull over to the side of the road safely and then jump out of your car and spring into action. Right. So you just get amongst it, helping survivors, bandaging up wounds, applying CPR, dragging people from the wreckage of their cars that's on fire and, you know, then waiting with them whilst the ambos arrive, the ambulance and medics. Once they get there and seen the job that you've done saving all these lives, they may think, you know, or say, "Wow, you had balls! You had a lot of balls helping all these people in this situation. It was really ballsy." "We can't believe you had the balls to help all these people." "You were incredibly brave. You were courageous. You had a lot of balls."

So there you go, guys. Now you understand the expression "to have a lot of balls", "to have the balls", "to do something ballsy", "to take a lot of balls". There's a lot of variations. But the basic idea here is that we can use "balls" referring to testicles and you possessing them, whether or not you literally do, to mean that you are brave. To mean that you are courageous, right. Took a lot of balls to create this episode about balls. Not really.

Anyway, let's go through the pronunciation exercise guys here where I'm going to read out a series of phrases. I want you to listen and repeat after me and focus on things like your pronunciation, intonation, rhythm, everything like that.

OK, let's go. To. To have. To have balls. To have balls. To have balls. To have balls. To have balls. I've got balls. You've got balls. He's got balls. She's got balls. We've got balls. They've got balls. It's got balls. Good job, guys.

Now, one thing you may notice is that quite often when 'have' gets contracted onto a pronoun like "I have" becoming "I've", "you have" becoming "you've". "She has", "she's" you know, the drill. You know how it goes. Quite often we add "got" afterwards because we don't like contracting an auxiliary verb like that and then leaving their space after it with no other verb. So it's a bit weird to say "I've balls". "You've balls". Instead, as a result, and it's kind of redundant, but we still do it. You could say "I have balls" or you can contract "have" and say "I've got balls".

Two things to notice here. The T in the word "got" gets turned into a glottal stop. So I don't actually stop this T with the tongue in my mouth. I use my throat. I've got balls. I've got balls. This is because there's a consonant coming after it, another stop consonant, the consonant B. Got balls, got balls.

The other thing is the dark L in the word "balls". So you won't hear me say balls with the light l where the tongue is touching the roof of my mouth. Instead I say balls, balls, balls. And so it's actually done with my lips.

If you want to learn about how to use the T is a glottal stop as well as how to use the dark L and when you should use these in English pronunciation, make sure to check out my Australian Pronunciation Course, which you can get access to at www.aussieenglish.com.au/apc.

So to finish up guys, before we go through a little fact about koala bears, I wanted to mention, did you notice that I used a few different expressions using the word bear B E A R. So "to bring to bear" meaning 'to bring something into operation or effect'. "To bear something in mind", meaning 'be mindful of something' or 'consider something'. "To bear the scars" or "to bear no scars". This is 'to suffer emotional scars because of something'. But it could also be that you physically have scars on your body as a result of something. And then "to bear fruit", meaning 'yield positive results'. So I use these expressions in this episode and my task for you, before we finish up- well, do it after we finish up. Go back and listen and see if you can hear when and where I've used these expressions: 'to bring to bear', 'to bear in mind', 'to bear the scars' and 'to bear fruit'.

Ok, so, Aussie fact-wise, I wanted to talk about koalas, which is sometimes known as koala bears, but they're not bears, they're marsupials. So when they were first discovered in Australia by Europeans, they were compared to monkeys and bears because they resembled them and lived in trees. The name Koala is derived from the indigenous Dharug word "gula" or "gulamany", which means 'no drink'. And this is because koalas don't need to drink water very often because they get enough of their water and moisture from the eucalyptus leaves that they eat.

Europeans first spotted them around Sydney Cove after arriving in the late 1700s. It wasn't until the early 1800s, though, that the first koala was shot and caught and described to the public in the Sydney Gazette newspaper. And I actually found that article here and wanted to read it to you. So this article is from the 21st of August 1803, when the Sydney Gazette informed the public that the first specimens of a new species had been discovered. So here's what they wrote.

An animal whose species was never before found in the colony is in His Excellency's possession. When taken, it had two pups, one of which died a few days hence. This creature is somewhat larger than the wombat, and although it might at first appearance be thought much to resemble it, nevertheless differs from that animal. The four and hind legs are about of an equal length, having five sharp talons at each of the extremities with which it must have climbed the highest trees with much facility.

The fur that covers it is a soft and fine, and of a mixed grey colour that is, are short and open. The graveness of the visage, which differs little in colour from the back, would seem to indicate a more than ordinary portion of animal sagacity. And the teeth resemble those of a rabbit. The surviving pup generally clings to the back of the mother or is caressed with a serenity that appears peculiarly characteristic. It has a false belly like apposin (a possum), and its food consists solely of gum leaves in the choice of which it is excessively nice.

So there you go. Naturalists gave the koala the scientific name Phascolarctos cinereus, which is derived from the Greek words meaning 'ash grey pouched bear'. So since it was discovered one way or another, the name "Bear" has been associated with the koala, although it is not a bear, and many Australians will chastise you, albeit nicely if you refer to it as a koala bear. They're just koalas.

Anyway, guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode. I hope you got a lot out of it. I hope you learnt a lot. Bear in mind not to kill koalas. Koala bears. I'm Pete. This is Aussie English and I'll see you next time. Bye.

Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

Load up on these knowledge bombs!

Did you know?

pete smissen, host of the aussie english podcast, facts about koalas, what are koalas, koalas are marsupials, what animal is koala, are koalas bears
  • Koalas are NOT bears – they are marsupials! Despite being called “koala bears”, they have share more characteristics with other marsupials.

  • Koalas can be found in southeastern & eastern Australia – they live high up in eucalyptus trees of native bushlands and forests.

  • Tough butts – Koalas have strong cartilage at the end of their spine (right at the butt), so when you see them perched in the forks of eucalyptus branches, trust that they are comfy at their home.

  • Koalas are fussy, picky eaters – they eat only eucalyptus leaves; additionally, they eat only less than 50 of the 200 species of eucalyptus trees!

  • The name “koala” came from the Dharug word meaning ‘no drink’.

  • Koalas sleep up to 18 hours a day!

  • Koalas have fingerprints – like primates, they have unique patterns on their paws that can easily identify each animal.

Further reading / viewing

Today's Vocab:

Here is a glossary of all the important vocabulary from today’s lesson.

Don’t forget, you’ll be able to see when and where the vocabulary was used in the transcript PDF for this episode, which you can download above.

  • Cathartic – Providing psychological relief through the open expression of strong emotions.
  • The great outdoors – (Aussie slang) All outdoor space, especially wild places used for activities like hiking or camping.
  • Bicker – Argue about petty and trivial matters.
  • A boat ramp – A ramp beside a body of water used to allow boats to be launched or hauled out of the water.
  • A ripper – (Aussie slang) An awesome thing.
  • A drop bear – A mythical marsupial resembling a koala, said to live in trees and attack people by dropping on to their heads from above.
  • Pertinent – Relevant or applicable to a particular matter; apposite.
  • An army chaplain – Someone who ministers to military personal and, in most cases, their families and civilians working for the military.
  • Cover – Safety; somewhere you can hide safely from danger.
  • Bear a lot of fruit – Yield positive results.
  • No man’s land – Disputed ground between the front lines or trenches of two opposing armies.
  • A law firm – A business that is engaged in the practice of law.
  • A partner – A senior lawyer who receives a set portion of the firm’s gross profit as a large portion of their salary.
  • Put someone to shame – Make someone or something seem bad or less impressive by comparison.
  • A petrol tanker – A large truck used to haul petrol as its cargo.
  • CPR – Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
  • Ambos – (Aussie slang) Ambulances and/or paramedics.
  • A marsupial – A mammal of an order whose members are born incompletely developed and are typically carried and suckled in a pouch on the mother’s belly.

Time to feed ya brain, mate!

Get more out of every episode!

Premium Podcast members get access to...

  • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
  • Member-only episode video lessons
  • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

Download my eBook!

    We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

    Share

    Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

    Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

      Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

      Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

        Have you got the Aussie English app?

        Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

        Download it for FREE below!

        Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

        Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

        English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

        Have you got the Aussie English app?

        Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

        Download it for FREE below!

        Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

        Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

        English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

        Leave a comment below & practice your English!

        The post AE 967 – Expression: Have Balls appeared first on Aussie English.

        ]]>
        https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-967-expression-have-balls/feed/ 4
        AE 962 – The Goss: 2 Naked Men Scared By Deer Get Lost In Bush and Fined $1000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-962-the-goss-2-naked-men-scared-by-deer-get-lost-in-bush-and-fined-1000/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-962-the-goss-2-naked-men-scared-by-deer-get-lost-in-bush-and-fined-1000/#respond Wed, 14 Jul 2021 09:00:00 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=162808 AE 962 – THE GOSS: 2 Naked Men Scared By Deer Get Lost In Bush and Fined $1000 Learn Australian…

        The post AE 962 – The Goss: 2 Naked Men Scared By Deer Get Lost In Bush and Fined $1000 appeared first on Aussie English.

        ]]>

        AE 962 - THE GOSS:

        2 Naked Men Scared By Deer Get Lost In Bush and Fined $1000

        Learn Australian English by listening to this episode of The Goss!

        These are conversations with my old man Ian Smissen for you to learn more about Australian culture, news, and current affairs. 

        pete smissen, host of aussie english podcast, naked men lost in the bush in nsw, the goss, ian smissen, australia news opinion

        In today's episode...

        We are going to talk about two Aussies who got caught naked in the bushes!

        Yes, two buck-naked men recently got lost in the Royal National Park. SES (State Emergency Services) had to called in and search for them. And so they got fined $1000 each for breaching travel restrictions.

        Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

        Watch & listen to the convo!

        Listen to today's episode!

        This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

        If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

        Listen to today's episode!

        Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

        You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

        Transcript of AE 936 - The Goss: The World's Most 'Instragrammable Bird' & Australia's Oldest-Ever Person

        G'day, you mob. Pete here, and this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So, today I have a Goss' episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news, whether locally down under here in Australia or non-locally overseas in other parts of the world.

        Okay, and we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind. Right. If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss'. So, these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English.

        So, it is particularly good to improve your listening skills. In order to complement that, though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership or the Academy membership at AussieEnglish.com.au, where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads, and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time.

        Okay, so if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time, keep practising and that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode, guys. Smack the bird and let's get into it.

        So, the other day I was walking around, I'm trying to smash out 10,000 steps a day, you know, about 8 kilometres. And the good thing about new development zones like this one in Curlewis is that they put parks everywhere.

        Yeah, there's green corridors everywhere.

        Yeah, things for nature. I mean, and the other thing that I've noticed about Curlewis is because they put banksia plants throughout all these streets, we get heaps of these black cockatoos, yellowtail black cockatoos. You can just hear them constantly and they're just eating the banksia things. I don't know if it's seasonal, but at the moment they're all over the place. It's probably the same group that I see every day.

        ...Also eat the cypress pinecones, which are not native. And so, there's a lot of the old farming land that used cypress because it grew quickly, and it was dense. And you make this effectively tree height hedges.

        Wind wall, right?

        Yeah. And for wind protection, so there's a lot of those around as well. And that is seasonal whenever they've got the new cones coming up.

        Yeah. So anyway, I was going for my walk, and I noticed this huge shadow sitting on the top of a sign when I was wal- It was at night that I was walking through one of these little areas and was like, Jesus Christ, what the hells that? And, you know, sort of move myself around so that I could see what it was in the moonlight, and it was a huge tawny frogmouth, you know. So, yeah.

        Anyway, so I found this article and these guys are just really cool animals. I think they're just the weirdest looking, shocking...

        They are.

        ...Face birds, like just...

        Yeah. They're basically a mouth and eyes with legs.

        That's it. That's it. So, yeah. Pretty much like a snake, right. Except with a mouth and eyes and a bum.

        Yes.

        So, researchers find that the frog mouth is the world's most Instagrammable bird.

        Instagrammable.

        That's a nice word there.

        That's bizarre...

        Able to be Instagrammed.

        Yeah. This is one of these ones where a brand name becomes a noun. It's a proper noun. Then it becomes a noun...

        ...This would be an adjective. Right.

        And then it becomes a verb, the verb to Instagram. And then we turn the verb into an adjective by making it the ability to do something that- So, yeah. It's sort of this Instagram evolution of language where you go from a proper noun to an adjective.

        YouTubable.

        Yeah. YouTubable.

        Googable.

        Well the verb to Google. Let's Google that.

        Yeah, well YouTube it.

        Yeah.

        Facebook it.

        Facebook it.

        So, to read out a little bit here, study of likes on the photo sharing app has perhaps surprisingly deemed the Australian and Southeast Asian native most aesthetically appealing. That's surprising in and of itself, more so than it's this bird.

        Looks like a baby.

        You reckon?

        Yeah. Well...

        It looks like a baby?

        But it's got baby features.

        Yeah. As in huge eyes.

        ...The big, huge eyes and that's, you know, you look at dolls, teddy bears, you know, baby animals. Even the adults just look like the most ridiculous things. But they're- They got the big eyes and the big smile.

        So, if someone were to ask what the most instagrammable bird in the world would be, it's unlikely that the frog mouth, whose main aesthetic goal is to look like a jagged tree branch, would be front of mind. But it seems science says otherwise. The dishevelled looking Australian and...

        Dishevelled.

        Brutal.

        That is brutal. They're not dishevelled.

        ...It's like homeless.

        Look up the meaning of dishevelled. Dishevelled means- Hang on.

        Yeah, like hair everywhere, scruffy.

        I can't do dishevelled now because I don't have long hair anymore.

        Unkempt, right. Messy.

        Yes, messy. But they're not.

        So, the dishevelled looking Australian and Southeast Asian native taking out the top spot in a study from Germany's university hospital Jena. Why on Earth was University Hospital Jena studying this? Which aimed to see which bird species reigned supreme on the photo sharing app. The study, published last week by German researchers, sorry guys, Dr Katja Thömmes and Dr Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring...

        Leichsenring.

        ...Leichsenring set out to analyse nearly 30,000 bird photos from nine popular avian photography Instagram accounts, using an algorithm to record which photos comparatively attracted the most likes on the photo sharing platform. And there you go, the tawny frogmouth won.

        Yeah, they don't- What they don't say is how they did the numbers.

        I guess they would have just worked out...

        Yeah. Is it proportional?

        Yeah.

        But if there was one...

        How many likes? Which got the most likes? Total likes or was it one photo that just got all those likes?

        ...One photo gets a million likes or there were 10,000 photos of tawny frogmouths and they all got one like each, but there were no other photographs.

        So, are tawny frogmouths owls, Dad?

        No, they are not.

        But they look like owls, and they hunt at night.

        Well, in fact their scientific name...

        This was pretty cool.

        ...It comes from- Yeah. I...

        You got it in front of you?

        I do. Podargus strigoides. Strigoides actually means, looks like an owl and podargus comes from a Greek word meaning Gout and...

        Brutal.

        Gout, for those of you who don't know the word in English, it's a disease typically used to be thought of as a fat old rich man's disease because it's basically where uric acid crystals form in the joints of particularly the feet, you know, big toes and so on. So, it's very difficult to walk if you've got really painful feet. And so, their called that because they actually don't walk very well.

        They very rarely walk; they fly and then land on a branch and hold on.

        Because people with gout.

        People with gout, yeah. People with gout with wings, no.

        That's it. People with gout, they just- They can't walk so they fly.

        ...End up looking like tawny frogmouths. No, so tawny frogmouths don't walk very well. So, I think the original person who obviously looked at it walking went, oh, its, you know, its bumbling along...

        Dudes got gout.

        ...gout. Yeah.

        Oh, man. Yeah. They're awesome birds, though. They are really cute. Look these guys up if you haven't already guys.

        They are really good. So, yeah, they look like owls but they're not.

        So, what does it say here? They got an IAA score, works by taking the absolute number of likes from a post and then factoring in the size of the account and the time the post has been public. It then produces an expected number of likes the post should receive and scores it based on the percentage of likes it received over or under this. And the tawny frogmouth averaged nineteen leaving with a respectable margin.

        The IAA score.

        What is it? While on the other hand, the Sandpiper was given a negative twenty-three. Brutal.

        Sandpipers, are cute.

        This is almost like, you know, face dating apps where you judge people based on their appearance, but for birds.

        I'm surprised like, yeah, I think twenty frogmouths are great, but I'm surprised it's not a parrot.

        You don't reckon?

        Yeah.

        Just too many parrots, Dad. I think the tawny frogmouth, though, probably also is just a weird looking bird. So, people see that and their like, well, Jesus. Give that a like.

        Yeah.

        Whereas they see a parrot and they're like, oh, yeah. It's a parrot.

        Exactly.

        So, what would you do then if you got to vote on Australia's most, you know, cute or attractive or Instagrammable birds, what bird would you be most likely to share a photo of on Instagram?

        If I wanted the most likes?

        Meh, what about pelicans?

        Pelican I...

        They are fricking weird looking birds.

        ...Not that I'm trying to get people to look at my Instagram account. Look at my Instagram account, and I probably got more photographs of pelicans than any other bird on there.

        Well, they're big and they're freaky looking and they've got these big eyes that are just, you know, don't...

        But that big bill, well, it's just a basically a, you know...

        Paddle.

        ...Pouch of skin.

        Especially when they catch something, and they try and eat it and they just look so uncoordinated. I saw a bunch down at the Queenscliff boat ramp a while back and I think...

        ...Hang around there for the fishermen.

        Yeah, some- A fishermen came in with his boat and tossed over a fish that obviously, for whatever reason, he didn't want and it was too big for any of the pelicans, so they just kept fighting over it and trying to swallow it and then having to, you know, just puke it up or whatever, because it was like one of these ones that was like flat, but really sort of tall, the fish.

        So, it was like just it couldn't obviously fit in its throat. Yeah, but- Yeah, they're weird looking birds. So, what would you pick?

        A pelican.

        Yeah. You reckon.

        Yeah. I reckon their pretty good. Well, that and a parrot. I, you know, they're a- but, yeah, you know, you're right, there are so many Australian parrots, but I think sulphur-crested cockatoos, they're the funniest birds.

        Why is that?

        Because they're idiots, but they're intelligent idiots. Because they're just smart arses.

        What do you reckon makes parrots so clever, especially cockatoos? What is it that underlies that?

        ...Evolutionary trigger...

        Yeah.

        ...Decided that an entire order of birds was going to be smart. Now, you could argue that corvids as a family, totally unrelated family, are smart as well.

        But it's almost like corvids don't have a sense of humour.

        No.

        It seems like parrots have a sense of humour...

        Corvids are clever like a fox.

        Yeah.

        Parrots are clever like a stand-up comedian.

        Yeah. And they know it.

        They know it, exactly.

        Like, that's the thing that blows my mind, I think about a lot of these parrots.

        ...Cockatoos and African parrots, African greys and things like that.

        Yeah. Just how it seems like they're really switched on.

        ...Sense of humour.

        Yeah. And you wonder what selected for- I guess, sociality in these animals...

        Well, they're social, yeah. Cockatoos are very social. You get very large groups of...

        Yeah.

        ...Of them and who knows. But you get very large groups of starlings, but starlings aren't particularly smart. I had no idea, that's one of those mysteries of sort of avian evolution as to what was that little trigger that somewhere in, you know- Particularly the Cockatoo family, but the, you know, the just the whole order of birds...

        See what we find here on Google.

        What was the trigger to make them so smart.

        I love this. When you type this sort of stuff in. Why are cockatoos so, and then it says loud, crazy, expensive, funny, cuddly, needy, dirty, pink, loud?

        But if you want to- Do yourself a favour, if you want to look up stupid parrots, there are several, in fact, there are a lots of YouTube videos of Australian cockatoos, sulphur-crested cockatoos dancing. Just Google or YouTube the verb, to YouTube, sulphur- Cockatoo dancing. They are ridiculous.

        Yeah. I'd love to get one as a pet, but I know it would out live me.

        A long way.

        Yeah.

        Yeah. Well, one of our local wildlife rescue places has cockatoos there that have, you know, just been donated to them by, you know, estates after people have died.

        Yeah.

        These people who've lived into their 80s and got a cockatoo as a pet when they were kids and the cockatoos still alive and they're not. Just- They can live for 100 years. It's just crazy. And again, what's the evolutionary thing to- You know, these are big birds. Your average little budgerigars, if you get 10 years out of a budgerigar, you've done very well.

        What have we got here? We've got a whole bunch. Yeah, same with galahs. So, white cockatoos 40 to 60 years, galahs are 40 years, sulphur-crested cockatoos 20 to 40 years, Carnaby's black cockatoos 25 to 50 years ago...

        This is just the average lifespan in the wild. Yeah.

        Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's crazy. Sydney's old croc of a cockie was a legend at 120.

        Yeah.

        A cockatoo lived to 120 years. Jesus. Well, I guess that leads us on to the last part of this story, we could talk about...

        Yeah.

        ...The oldest ever Australian.

        The oldest ever Australian.

        That's a good segway. Good job, Pete.

        Good job. Well done.

        Yeah. This is crazy...

        Thanks to Kruger. Good on ya, Dexter. Happy Birthday a while ago. He's gone past his 111th birthday, three months into his 112 year.

        Jesus. So, he was born in 1910. I think we've spoken about him on the podcast before, actually. Yeah, we have.

        Yeah. I think maybe, yeah, when he turned 111. Yeah. In January. So...

        Insane.

        But yeah, he's still going on. And look, the one takeaway which wasn't in the thing...

        ...Was doing yoga, I think.

        There's two takeaways, he does his daily exercise, which is a bit of yoga, and he goes for a walk and the manager of the old people's home that lives in says he's a lot fitter and brighter than most of our 80- and 90-year old's...

        Jesus. You wonder if they just look at him and they're just like, God damn.

        Yeah. And look, there's a couple of ones that I think his son, his 74-year-old son said his father's simple lifestyle and balanced diet, complete with plenty of salt, sugar and fat and a lot to do with his age.

        Yeah.

        But I also love the one line about his weekly delicacy he credits to his longevity, chicken brains.

        Jesus.

        So...

        They always say that and then it turns out it's genetic and they have the genes that allow them.

        You know, chickens have a head and that in...

        Their brains.

        ...Is some brains and they are delicious little things. There's only one bite. So, chicken brains is the secret to long life, if you believe Dexter. What do you think it would be like getting to 111 years? Do you reckon you'd be able to remember much of what actually happened when you were, say, a 10-year-old, a 20 year, 30-year-old?

        ...Clearly, Dexter's still got his wits about him, he's not suffering from any forms of dementia or something.

        He's 80 years older than me.

        Yeah.

        Like, that's- It's insane. I highly, highly doubt that I will be 111.

        ...Become an old person at 80. Yeah, so. Well, that would be me at what? So, if that was 80 years from now, it would be 2101. Right. So, that's I've got to get to 111, or 110 to get into the next century. Now I've got to do it, all right. There's a target. There's a target. What do you think his-?

        I always wondered, and I worry about sort of talking to my grandparents about this, although ironically, I think Nana and Grandpa, my mother's parents are a lot more open about death and age and being old than they were when I was younger.

        Yeah. Well...

        When they were younger.

        ...Well, you know, every day anybody lives you're a day closer to dying. And I think when you live a long time- If you get into the 90s, you've got to realise that, you know, there's no long-term plans here. I'm not going to go out and get a 30-year loan to buy another house, you know, this is- So, I think people are much more open to that and accepting that, you know, the inevitable It's probably just a reality of things, but...

        It just...

        ...Doesn't mean you want to die, it's just that...

        No, for sure.

        ...You just accept that there's a fair chance that I'm going to die in the next few years.

        Well...

        Which is different until you get- I'm sure until you get into your 70s or 80s, you don't think like that. No. Well, how do you think about it?

        I don't think like that.

        But as in like, I'm going to die soon.

        Well, you don't think you're going to die soon. I don't, you know, have a real- I don't want to die, but I don't have a fear of death.

        Yeah.

        I don't have a fear of being dead because I don't...

        I don't think many people have a fear of being dead, unless they're worried about going to hell.

        Yeah, well, I have no religious beliefs at all. So, in fact, my religious beliefs are anti-religious. But that's- It's...

        The transition between living and death that I freak out about and I just hope it's quick and painless.

        ...Dying process is the- And again, it's not a fear, it's just that, you know, you don't want to go through something that is going to be long and painful. Yeah, exactly. So, but yeah, somebody like Dexter- Yeah, imagine what he can remember, the things that he's seen, and they mention it here...

        ...He's lived through the First World War...

        ...Lived through the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Middle Eastern Wars...

        The Cold War.

        ...Involved in, the Cold War.

        Well, he was alive before we had planes right or around the time the very, very first planes were, you know, just flying a few hundred metres? Yeah, he was around before cars or at least, you know, combustion engine cars right on the roads...

        There were a few around.

        But that wouldn't have been widespread. That would not have been...

        Your average person didn't own them until the 1930s.

        And he was a cattle grazier. Right. So, it's crazy to think...

        ...Horse around and...

        He was living a pretty rough life as well, you would imagine. It wouldn't have been a kettle of fish, just- I mean, kettle of fish. Something easy where it would have been a completely different kettle of fish to someone who, like myself, is just living by working in a studio, chilling out.

        Well, his son, he says he lived through a period that it was a lot less stressful than what we as a society face today.

        Yeah.

        And so, you look at that and go, it's probably true. And even, you know, Dexter himself talks about, you know, computer age and, you know, technology and he says just makes life more stressful because it's just quicker and you don't get time to relax.

        Yeah. Do you ever get nostalgic about the past in Australia and wish, you know, for instance, would it been really cool to have been a cattle grazier 100 years ago where you just get to hang out with your animals, with your horse, with your nearest family?

        Bloody hard work, though.

        Physically.

        Physical Work.

        Yeah, but it's simpler in terms of...

        Yeah. Not a lot of stress other than drought and flood and fire, you know, natural disasters are about the only stress that you have.

        Well, Indigenous people that you're potentially encroaching on the land of theirs...

        Well, if you go back far enough, yeah.

        Bush rangers.

        Bushrangers.

        Yeah. But yeah, congratulations, Dexter. That's absolutely insane. I can't imagine getting to 111...

        And 124 days.

        Yeah, and 124 days. I guess you count it at that point. Do you get another letter from the queen at 110?

        I don't know. I don't know. Well, you had to, I wonder whether the queen will send herself a congratulatory letter on a 100th birthday.

        If she makes it.

        Well, I think she'll live till she's, you know, she'll outlive her children, I reckon.

        Prince Charles is just like, God damn it.

        Too bloody stubborn to die like her mother.

        All right. Well, I guess we're finishing there, guys. But thanks for joining us. See you next time.

        Bye.

        Peace.

        Alrighty, you mob. Thank you so much for listening to or watching this episode of The Goss'. If you would like to watch the video, if you're currently listening to it and not watching it, you can do so on the Aussie English Channel on YouTube. You'll be able to subscribe to that, just search "Aussie English" on YouTube.

        And if you're watching this and not listening to it, you can check this episode out also on the Aussie English podcast, which you can find via my free Aussie English podcast application on both Android and iPhone. You can download that for free or you can find it via any other good podcast app that you've got on your phone. Spotify, podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, whatever it is.

        I'm your host, Pete. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a ripper of a day, and I will see you next time. Peace.

        Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

        Get more out of every episode!

        Premium Podcast members get access to...

        • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
        • Member-only episode video lessons
        • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

        Download my eBook!

          We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

          Share

          Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

          Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

            Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

            Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

              Have you got the Aussie English app?

              Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

              Download it for FREE below!

              Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

              Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

              English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

              Have you got the Aussie English app?

              Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

              Download it for FREE below!

              Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

              Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

              English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

              Leave a comment below & practice your English!

              The post AE 962 – The Goss: 2 Naked Men Scared By Deer Get Lost In Bush and Fined $1000 appeared first on Aussie English.

              ]]>
              https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-962-the-goss-2-naked-men-scared-by-deer-get-lost-in-bush-and-fined-1000/feed/ 0
              AE 956 – Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ VS /æ/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-956-australian-english-how-to-pronounce-e-vs-ae/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-956-australian-english-how-to-pronounce-e-vs-ae/#respond Fri, 09 Jul 2021 12:00:00 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=162300 AE 956 Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ vs /æ/ Learn Australian English in thisAdvanced English Pronunciation Lesson! In today’s…

              The post AE 956 – Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ VS /æ/ appeared first on Aussie English.

              ]]>

              AE 956

              Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ vs /æ/

              Learn Australian English in this
              Advanced English Pronunciation Lesson!

              pete smissen, host of aussie english podcast, australian pronounciation, pronounciation practice, english pronounciation lesson, e vs ae sound, how say e versus ae

              In today's episode...

              I am going to teach you how to say /e/ versus /æ/!

              Learn the difference between the words like “set” and “sat” or “merry” and “marry”.

              First, we go over the correct pronunciation of /e/ and /æ/.

              Then, we compare the sounds when used in words, like berry and Barry.

              And lastly, I give you a FREE listening exercise!

              I am going to say 10 different words and show you two possible answers. Your task is to know which sound is used on the word.

              This episode has a bunch of examples for you to practice on!

              Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

              Watch & listen to the convo!

              Listen to today's episode!

              This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

              If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

              Listen to today's episode!

              Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

              You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

              Transcript of AE 956 - Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ vs /æ/

              G'day, you mob. Pete here, from Aussie English. Today we have an advanced pronunciation lesson where we are going to go through the two vowel sounds /e/ and /æ/. Are you ready? Let's go. All right, so today's episode is courtesy of my wife, who is from Brazil and finds these two sounds incredibly difficult to differentiate between. So, Kel, this one is for you and obviously anyone else who finds these sounds difficult.

              Just before we get into it, guys, in the description below, there is a free PDF lesson worksheet for today's lesson that you can download and print so that you can read and write and take notes as we go. So, go check that out. So, today's lesson is going to be broken up into four different parts. In part one, we are going to go over the vowel sound /e/. In part two, we're going to go over the vowel sound /æ/.

              In part three, we are going to do a comparative pronunciation exercise using minimal pairs, these are words that will only differ in whether they have the /e/ vowel sound or the /æ/ vowel sound. So, this is where you will learn to pronounce the differences. And then in part four, we're going to train your listening skills to be able to differentiate between these two sounds when you are listening in English.

              If you'd like access to the detailed video tutorials that I've created to show you how to position your mouth, to say the vowel sounds /e/ and /æ/, make sure that you keep watching in this video because I'll tell you how to do that later on.

              All right, so let's get into part one. So, in part one here, we're first going to go over the /ɛ/ vowel sound, which is represented by this symbol in the international phonetic alphabet. Remember, for those of you listening to this episode as a podcast, check out the YouTube videos so that you can see what I'm displaying on screen. So, /e/ is a short vowel sound in English and you'll hear /ɛ/ in words like, "bet, men and said".

              The vowel sound will usually be spelt in these different ways. I'll display them on screen, but you can see that there are about eight different ways that this vowel sound can be spelt. So, let's practise this sound. In this exercise I want you to listen and repeat after me, I'm going to first pronounce the vowel sound /e/ three times and then I'm going to say ten different words that have this vowel sound in them. You ready? Let's go.

              "e. e. e. Bed. Head. Set. Ex. Dead. Fed. Net. Merry. Guest. Kettle." Good job. Now it's time for part two. So, now we're going to go over the vowel sound /æ/, which is also a short vowel sound in English. This is represented by this symbol in Australian English. /æ/ is a short vowel sound and you'll hear the sound /æ/ in words like, "bat, map and lad".

              The vowel sound will usually be spelt one of three ways which I'll display on screen now. Note there's a long vowel sound version of /æ/ which is said as "aaa", and you'll hear this in words like "sad, man and land". We'll cover the long /æ/ vowel sound in another episode. So, let's practise the sound /æ/, I'm going to say this sound three times and then I'm going to go through a list of ten different words that have the /æ/ vowel sound in them.

              You ready? Let's go. "æ. æ. æ. Bat. Had. Sat. Axe. Dad. Fad. Nat. Marry. Gast. Cattle. Now it's time for part three, so in this section, we're going to work on our pronunciation of these two sounds side by side using minimal pairs. But before we get into that.

              I know how important good pronunciation is to English learners, just like you, my students often tell me about how they worry about not sounding professional at work, not being able to communicate clearly and lacking confidence when they speak, which often holds them back from speaking at all. I've helped thousands of students overcome these issues and level up their English pronunciation inside my Australian pronunciation course.

              The course helps students level up their speaking confidence, allows them to communicate easily and effectively and most importantly, to sound more Australian. When you join the Australian pronunciation course today, you're going to get instant access to detailed video tutorials for every single vowel sound and consonant sound in Australian English.

              You're going to get video exercises and tongue twisters so that you can perfect these sounds and sound much more like an English native speaker. And you're going to get access to 25 advanced pronunciation lessons that cover things like the Australian "aaa", the syllabic N and the syllabic L, all of these advanced things that you can learn to sound much more like a native Australian English speaker.

              So, join today and let's level up your pronunciation skills together. I'll see you in there. Anyway, back to the lesson. So, minimal pairs are incredibly important for learning how to pronounce the differences, the distinct differences, the subtle differences between two different sounds in English.

              In this exercise I'm going to repeat 10 different words, the first one will have the short /e/ vowel sound and the second one will have the short /æ/ vowel sound. Are you ready? Let's go. "Bet. Bat. Head. Had. Set. Sat. Ex. Axe. Dead. Dad. Fed. Fad. Net. Nat. Merry. Marry. Guest. Gast. Kettle. Cattle. How'd you go? Not easy, huh? All right, now it's time for part four.

              So, in this last section, we're going to test your listening skills to see if you can differentiate between these two very similar sounds, /e/ and /æ/ in Australian English. Don't be discouraged if you find this difficult. Just repeat this exercise multiple times and it'll get easier and easier. This is how you're going to train your ear to hear the difference between these two very similar sounds.

              So, I'm going to display the two different minimal pairs for each word pair on screen. But I'm only going to say one of each one of these. I want you to write down which one you hear or write down the letter A for the /e/ vowel sound and the letter B for the /æ/ vowel sound. And then I'll give you the answers at the end. So, are you ready to go? Let's do it. "Bet. Had. Set. Axe. Dad. Fed. Net. Merry. Gast. Cattle." Good job, guys.

              And for those of you listening to this episode as a podcast, the answers were A, B, A, B, B, A, A, A, B, B. How'd you go? So, that's it for today's episode, guys. Don't forget, if you would like to get access to the Australian pronunciation course, go down into the description and click the link or go to AussieEnglish.com.au/apc.

              Besides that, like the video, if you liked it, share it with a friend who's interested in English and make sure that you subscribe to the channel and smash that bell notification button if you would like to see the next lesson coming soon. I'm Pete, this is Aussie English. Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time.

              Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

              Get more out of every episode!

              Premium Podcast members get access to...

              • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
              • Member-only episode video lessons
              • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

              Download my eBook!

                We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                Share

                Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                  Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                  Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                    Have you got the Aussie English app?

                    Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                    Download it for FREE below!

                    Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                    Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                    English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                    Have you got the Aussie English app?

                    Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                    Download it for FREE below!

                    Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                    Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                    English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                    Leave a comment below & practice your English!

                    The post AE 956 – Australian English: How To Pronounce /e/ VS /æ/ appeared first on Aussie English.

                    ]]>
                    https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-956-australian-english-how-to-pronounce-e-vs-ae/feed/ 0
                    AE 955 – 5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English | Part 3 https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-955-6-english-expressions-you-need-to-know/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-955-6-english-expressions-you-need-to-know/#respond Sun, 04 Jul 2021 09:00:00 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=162200 AE 955 – EXPRESSION: 5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English | Part 3 Learn Australian English in this expression…

                    The post AE 955 – 5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English | Part 3 appeared first on Aussie English.

                    ]]>

                    AE 955 - EXPRESSION:

                    5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English | Part 3

                    Learn Australian English in this expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast.

                    These episodes aim to teach you common English expressions as well as give you a fair dinkum true-blue dose of Aussie culture, history, and news and current affairs.

                    pete smissen, host of the aussie english podcast, english expressions. learn english online free, learn australian english, hard nut to crack, chasing rainbows, a rising tide lifts all boats, rattle your dags, make your skin crawl, scaredy cat

                    In today's episode...

                    I am going to teach you 6 English expressions that you can use in your daily conversations!

                    Here are some English expressions guaranteed to level up your English:

                    • A hard nut to crack
                    • Chasing rainbows
                    • A rising tide lifts all boats
                    • Rattle your dags
                    • Make your skin crawl
                    • Scaredy cat

                    In this video, I tell you what these expressions mean & give you situations where you can appropriately use them.

                    Watch the video to the end to get a little surprise!

                    Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                    Watch & listen to the convo!

                    Listen to today's episode!

                    This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                    If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

                    Listen to today's episode!

                    Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

                    You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                    Transcript of AE 955 - 6 English Expressions You Need to Know

                    G'day, you mob and welcome to Aussie English. I am your host, Pete, and my objective here is to teach you guys the English spoken down under. So, whether you want to sound like a fair dinkum Aussie or you just want to understand what the flipping hell we're on about when we're having a yarn, you've come to the right place. So, sit back, grab a cuppa and enjoy Aussie English. Let's go.

                    G'day, you mob. Pete here, this is Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. Welcome. Welcome to this expression round up episode. This is where I am going to be teaching you six- six? Plus one. Six expressions that advanced English speakers, native English speakers use all the time down under in Australia.

                    Well, five of them they use all the time, the other one is just a very cool slang term that a lot of people know, especially Australians, and that I definitely recommend you try on, you give a go, you give a whirl when speaking English in Australia. Anyway, so I'm going to teach you these six expressions. I will give you some examples of how I would use these expressions in day-to-day English.

                    Remember that each one of these expressions has been on the podcast and has an advanced video lesson that goes with it. I will show them up above here. I'll link them, too, so that you can go and check out the full episodes if you want to dive deeper. Okay. Besides that, don't forget to stay until the end of this episode because I have a little gift for you that's going to help you level up your English with lightning speed.

                    And lastly, there's a worksheet below for you to cover, to review all of the expressions in today's episode, too. So, don't forget to go down into the description there or on the web page where this is published and hit download. Okay, so are you ready to go? Are you ready to rock? Are you ready to learn these expressions? The answer's yes. Let's go. Number one, "a hard nut to crack, a hard nut to crack".

                    So, this was in episode 904 of the Aussie English podcast. And if you listen to that episode, you will know that "a hard nut to crack" is an expression that means a person or a thing that is difficult to deal with. That's difficult to understand. That's difficult to influence.

                    So, for example, if you work for an IT company and you've been given the task of writing some code to create a certain algorithm, maybe you work for Facebook or YouTube and you're finding it really, really difficult to do, you know, writing this code is really, really hard.

                    It's a problem. It's an issue. It is a task that is "a hard nut to crack". It is hard to deal with. It's hard to resolve. It's "a hard not to crack". Example number two might be that you're dating someone, you know, you guys have been on a few dates. Maybe you haven't pashed yet, right? You haven't had a kiss yet. You haven't had a snog with the person you're on a date with.

                    So, you're still trying to work out, do they like me? Do they not like me? Where do we stand? You know, and if this person's not giving you any signals and they're hard to understand, they may be "a hard nut to crack". Do they like me? Don't they like me? They want to go on another date, but I can't tell. They're not giving me any signals. They are "a hard nut to crack". All right. Number two, "chasing rainbows".

                    This was episode 919 of the Aussie English podcast. Remember "to chase rainbows, if you chase rainbows, if you are chasing rainbows", this means that you are wasting your time pursuing something impossible. Right. Something that is almost certainly never going to happen. You are "chasing rainbows". The idea here being that if you actually try to chase a rainbow, you never get to the end of the rainbow, right?

                    You never find that leprechaun with the pot of gold. It's impossible because the rainbow is always the same distance from your eyes, right. The physics of it mean that you can never actually get to a rainbow. Annoying, right? So, example number one, imagine that you are an Aussie guy or girl who's flown over to America, and you want to become an actor, right. You want to make it big in Hollywood.

                    So, you start submitting all of these- I don't know. What do they submit? Audition tapes, videos of you acting to different films, to different TV shows, hoping that you'll get selected. But your friends tell you, you know, it's always a long shot, so you're probably "chasing rainbows". You know, you're probably better off just getting a normal job.

                    You'll have more chance of making a decent income, of "earning a crust", there's a good expression for you, to make an income. If you do that, as opposed to trying to become the next Chris Hemsworth, you're probably "chasing rainbows". And remember from that episode, the Aussie version of this expression "to be dreamin', right? He's dreamin'. Oh, mate, tell him he's dreamin'" from the movie The Castle.

                    Go check out the episode to learn more about that reference. Number three, "a rising tide lifts all boats, a rising tide lifts all boats". This was used in episode 929 of the Aussie English podcast. So, go check out that episode if you want to get deeper into this expression.

                    Typically, it's used to refer to a well performing economy, helping everyone, both rich and poor, equally. Right. The idea that everyone there is a boat on the ocean and if the tide in the ocean is rising, all boats rise. You know, can't just be the rich boats or the poor boats may be sinking down. They all rise equally. So, we can also use this to mean an action that helps everyone involved, though, right.

                    The idea being that if you do something that helps everyone, it's like "a rising tide lifting all boats". So, let's go through some examples. Example number one, imagine that you're a politician and you're unlike most politicians, not a dodgy guy. You're a good guy as opposed to a bad guy.

                    And you're trying to do the right thing, you're trying to make a big difference for, you know, Aussie battlers, people doing it tough and who have low income. So, you want to implement some sort of tax law or tax reform so that everyone will do better. You're hoping that by doing this, it's like "a rising tide lifting all boats", right? So, everyone's going to benefit. The second example may be that you are a billionaire, right.

                    One of the very few people in the world who has 1,000 million dollars or more in assets and wealth. But instead of being like most billionaires, you want to give away a lot of your money, right. You're more of a philanthropic billionaire, maybe like Bill Gates or apparently like Mark Zuckerberg. He says he's going to give away 99% of his wealth.

                    So, you're hoping to do this to charities, say, fighting disease in places like, you know, poor countries in Asia or in Africa or in South America because you want to help the poor and you're hoping by doing so "a rising tide lifts all boats". If you develop vaccines for certain diseases or treatments for things like malaria, you're hoping it helps everyone. "A rising tide lifts all boats".

                    All right. Expression number four, and this was from episode 935. This is the very, very Aussie expression. I think if you were to use this in Great Britain, in America, you would confuse the crap out of people. You would confuse people quite a lot. However, I think you could probably use this in New Zealand, and it might make sense. Anyway, let me explain it. "To rattle your dags, to rattle your dags".

                    Right, if you rattle something, it'd be like having keys and I've got no keys on me. But- Oh, I've got an idea. Here we go. Here's a prop when you need it, that's to rattle, right. It's to make all those noises when you got a bunch of things, that's to rattle something. A dag in Australia is the sort of dreadlock that you would see on the backside of a sheep that is caked together full of poo.

                    And, you know, if they rattle together, it's because the sheep is running usually. Right. All the dags on the sheep's bum are rattling together and making some noise. So, it's a very Australian expression to mean get a move on, hurry up, let's go. "Rattle your dags, mate. Rattle your dags". Come on. Come on. So, example number one, imagine you are running late to a party that you and your wife are going to.

                    She might come out of the bedroom. She's ready, you know, she's gotten all dolled up. She's put some lipstick on. She's got her dress on. And you've just gotten out of the bath. And she might be like looking at her watch going, come on, hurry up, mate. "Rattle your dags". Get a move on. Hurry up. We need to go. "Rattle your dags". Another one could be imagine you're a marathon runner and you are in a race and you're coming second.

                    So, you are right at the front, almost number one and you can see the finish line within sight. You are so close as you get there, your coach might yell out to you, Pete, rattle your dags, you're almost there. You can win. "Rattle your dags". You know, hurry up, go faster, get a move on. "To rattle your dags".

                    And I think if you were to use this in Australia with Australians in a kind of, you know, friendly, cute kind of way, they will laugh their heads off. If they hear you say, you know, "rattle your dags". Oh, we better "rattle our dags". We got to get a move on. Better "rattle your dags". Number five, "to make your skin crawl, to make your skin crawl". So, this was episode 941 on the Aussie English podcast. It came out recently.

                    If you make someone's skin crawl or if something makes your skin crawl, it's that you make someone feel disgusted or afraid, or that something makes you feel disgusted or afraid. Right. Scared. So, example one, my wife Kel has a phobia of spiders. They really freak her out. She hates spiders. Small spiders, especially big spiders, anything with eight legs that's furry she just finds absolutely disgusting and it freaks her out.

                    So, any time she sees one, "it makes her skin crawl". She's like, oh, it's like I can feel it on me, the legs on me running around. I hate them. "They make my skin crawl". Another one might be, another example might be that you hate scary movies because as the name suggests, they're scary. They make you afraid. Sometimes they're really gory, really disgusting. There's a lot of blood and guts and horror in the film.

                    So, if you go to a film and you see one of these scenes where there's lots of stuff going on that you find incredibly disgusting or very scary, you might say, oh, I hate this film. "It's making my skin crawl". It's just gross. It's freaking me out. The last one, guys, number six is to be a "scaredy cat, a scaredy cat". Now, let's make this a two for one.

                    You could also use "a fraidy cat", right, like a cat that is afraid, a cat that is scared, "a scaredy cat, a fraidy cat". This was episode 952 of the Aussie English podcast that was released recently. If you are "a fraidy cat or a scaredy cat", it is that you are afraid. You're scared. But it's kind of young child speak.

                    It's what you would use as a kid, you know, when I was in the playground, if there was a whole bunch of my mates and we were, you know, I don't know, playing around. Let's try doing this thing. Do a backflip, Pete. I don't want to do a backflip, mate. I'll get hurt. What are you, "a scaredy cat"? Are you afraid? All right, I'll do one. Oh, my back. All right.

                    Example number two, at the moment, my son hates slides. Right. So, we go to playgrounds, and he really doesn't like slides because they kind of freak him out. You know, the height kind of scares him. He feels like he's losing control when he goes down them, that it's too fast. So, he's a bit of "a scaredy cat". He's a bit of "a fraidy cat" when it comes to using slides at the playground. But he'll get better, he'll get better.

                    Anyway, guys, that is it. Those are the expressions. "A hard nut to crack, to chase rainbows. A rising tide lifts all boats, rattle your dags, to make your skin crawl and a scaredy cat." Okay, so try and use one of these right now. Right. Pause the episode or the video and try and go down into the comments below and use one of these expressions that you found, you know, the most interesting.

                    Maybe if you knew some already use one that you didn't know beforehand. This is how you're going to get the English to enter your active vocabulary. Right. Something that you've just learnt now, it's in your passive vocab. You've seen it before. You might understand it passively. If you want to get it into your active vocab so that you can use it, you have to use it. Right. There's no- There's no other way around it.

                    You have to kind of use it to be able to use it. I don't know if that's an adage or a slogan yet, but maybe I'll make that one. Anyway, besides that, I've got a little gift for you. So, I have a podcast, as I mentioned, called the Aussie English Podcast. And it comes with full transcripts, full video lessons for these expression episodes.

                    Every single expression episode that I've mentioned today comes as a full 20-minute episode where you will learn how to use the expression, but you'll learn a lot of other advanced English in there. You'll get access to pronunciation lessons. There's a lot of content when you join the Aussie English podcast.

                    So, if you want to get access to this, go down below and you will be able to sign up to the premium podcast membership in the next 24 hours and get your first month free. Okay, so I don't usually give out a month's free access to this podcast to anyone, but for the next 24 hours after this video has been released, you can go down there, you can sign up and you can check out over 950 episodes in the podcast membership for free for 30 days.

                    Okay, so I hope that helps you level up your English. I hope you enjoy it. If you've got any questions, again, send me a comment below or send me an email. Besides that, I'm Pete, this is Aussie English. Thank you for joining me and I'll see you next time. Bye.

                    Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

                    Get more out of every episode!

                    Premium Podcast members get access to...

                    • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
                    • Member-only episode video lessons
                    • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

                    Download my eBook!

                      We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                      Share

                      Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                      Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                        Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                        Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                          Have you got the Aussie English app?

                          Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                          Download it for FREE below!

                          Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                          Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                          English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                          Have you got the Aussie English app?

                          Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                          Download it for FREE below!

                          Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                          Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                          English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                          Leave a comment below & practice your English!

                          The post AE 955 – 5 Expressions To Sound Fluent in English | Part 3 appeared first on Aussie English.

                          ]]>
                          https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-955-6-english-expressions-you-need-to-know/feed/ 0
                          AE 949 – Aussie Slang: Out the Back of Bourke https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-949-aussie-slang-out-the-back-of-bourke/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-949-aussie-slang-out-the-back-of-bourke/#respond Fri, 25 Jun 2021 03:30:00 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=161183 AE 949 – AUSSIE SLANG: Out the Back of Bourke Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the…

                          The post AE 949 – Aussie Slang: Out the Back of Bourke appeared first on Aussie English.

                          ]]>

                          AE 949 - AUSSIE SLANG:

                          Out the Back of Bourke

                          Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the Aussie English Podcast.

                          This is the Aussie Slang series where I teach you slang that is commonly used Down Under.

                          pete smissen, host of aussie english podcast, aussie slang, australian slang, out the back of the bourke, where is bourke australia, back of bourke meaning, learn english online free, learn english with pete

                          In today's episode...

                          I am going to teach you the Aussie slang phrase “out the back of bourke”

                          Learn what it means and how you can use it in your daily conversations.

                          Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                          Watch & listen to the convo!

                          Listen to today's episode!

                          This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                          If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

                          Listen to today's episode!

                          Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

                          You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                          Transcript of AE 949 - Aussie Slang: Out The Back of Bourke

                          G'day, you mob, how's it going? Welcome to this episode of Aussie English, it's another Aussie slang episode where my goal here is to teach you Australian slang words and expressions so that when you're speaking English down under, in the land of Oz in Australia or with Australians, with Aussies, you can communicate more effectively. You can sound like one of us. You can put a smile on their faces and also so that you can understand when Aussies are using these words or terms.

                          So today's term is "out the back of Bourke". "Out the back of Bourke". This is similar to the "back of beyond" which you can check out up here. But if you say "live out the back of Bourke", the idea is that you live a long way away that is remote or inconvenient. It is far away from civilisation. It's in the bush. It's rural. It's a long, long way away. It's out the back of Bourke. Right.

                          So where did this come from? It's based on an actual place in rural New South Wales that is called Bourke. That is a long way away. And it's extremely hot country and it's known for its dust storms and cotton farms. OK, so I wonder if any of you guys have been to Bourke.

                          Maybe you guys live out the back of Bourke. But you could use this expression to say, "Oh, mate, my my mate lives so far away from the city. It's effectively out the back of Bourke". "He lives so far away. It's out the back of Bourke. It's ages away".

                          So another one could be I went on a trip recently into Central Australia. And the whole time it was crazy being out the back of Bourke. You could see the stars. There were no people around. It's awesome. I love being out the back of Bourke.

                          So, guys, don't forget, I release a second episode in this series every single week that you can get access to. If you are a Premium Podcast or Academy member, you can get access up here or you can go down below to sign up. When you become a member, you will get access to a lot more English learning content both for Australian English, but English overall. So I really recommend that you check it out. And besides that, guys, I would love to see you use the expression "out the back of Bourke" down below in a comment. Have you been somewhere that is out the back of Bourke recently? Let me know below and I'll see you next time, peace!

                          Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

                          Get more out of every episode!

                          Premium Podcast members get access to...

                          • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
                          • Member-only episode video lessons
                          • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

                          Download my eBook!

                            We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                            Share

                            Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                            Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                              Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                              Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                                Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                Download it for FREE below!

                                Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                Download it for FREE below!

                                Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                Leave a comment below & practice your English!

                                The post AE 949 – Aussie Slang: Out the Back of Bourke appeared first on Aussie English.

                                ]]>
                                https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-949-aussie-slang-out-the-back-of-bourke/feed/ 0
                                AE 944 – Aussie Slang: Bad News https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-944-aussie-slang-bad-news/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-944-aussie-slang-bad-news/#respond Fri, 18 Jun 2021 03:30:49 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=160073 AE 938 – AUSSIE SLANG: Bad News Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the Aussie English Podcast.…

                                The post AE 944 – Aussie Slang: Bad News appeared first on Aussie English.

                                ]]>

                                AE 938 - AUSSIE SLANG:

                                Bad News

                                Learn Australian English in each of these episodes of the Aussie English Podcast.

                                This is the Aussie Slang series where I teach you slang that is commonly used Down Under.

                                pete smissen, host of aussie english, aussie slang, australian slang, what is bad news, bad news meaning, learn australian english, learn aussie english

                                In today's episode...

                                I teach you the Aussie slang phrase “bad news”

                                Learn what it means and how you can use it in your daily conversations.

                                Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                                Watch & listen to the convo!

                                Listen to today's episode!

                                This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                                If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

                                Listen to today's episode!

                                Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

                                You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                                Transcript of AE 944 - Aussie Slang: Bad News

                                G'day, you mob, how's it going? Pete here from Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. And welcome, welcome, welcome to the next instalment of the Aussie Slang series.

                                Now, today, I'm going to be teaching you the slang term "bad news". Someone who is "bad news". Now, "bad news" can be used by all English speakers to be talking about information that you have just received that is obviously not good, right? So if you go to a hospital, you talk to your doctor and the doctor says, I've got some bad news for you. That is obviously not good, right? You would imagine that that is not good news. It's bad news. It is information that is likely to not be good.

                                You know, I think you know what bad news is, but we can use this in Australian English when describing someone. And it means that they are a troublesome person. Maybe they're a bit dodgy. They are not to be trusted. They are troublesome person. They are "bad news". So maybe you have a friend who comes to a party and you tell your other mates there, you know, he's a friend, but he's a bit troublesome. He's a bit dangerous. He's bad news sometimes. That guy's bad news.

                                Or maybe you're in town and you see this crazy woman walking through town. You know, she's a total nut job and just a loon, completely crazy. And you say, "Quick, get your family!" You say, "Quick, everyone! Let's get to the other side of the road. This woman is bad news. She's troublesome. She's dangerous. She's bad news."

                                So thanks for joining me, guys. Hopefully you understood this expression. If someone is bad news, they are troublesome. They are dangerous. Use it in a comment below and show me that you've understood it, right? Make your own sentence using this expression. You know, have you ever come across someone who is "bad news"? Do people think you are "bad news"? Who knows? Right. I'm sure that someone out there thinks I'm "bad news". You just, you know, statistically, there's got to be someone.

                                Besides that guys, don't forget, I release another episode in the Aussie Slang series every single week for members of the Premium Podcast membership or the Academy. If you would like to learn more about the Premium Podcast and Academy, go up here or check out the links below. And for everything Australian English go to www.aussieenglish.com.au. I'm your host. Pete, this is Aussie English. See you next time!

                                Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

                                Get more out of every episode!

                                Premium Podcast members get access to...

                                • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
                                • Member-only episode video lessons
                                • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

                                Download my eBook!

                                  We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                  Share

                                  Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                                  Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                                    Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                                    Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                                      Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                      Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                      Download it for FREE below!

                                      Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                      Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                      English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                      Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                      Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                      Download it for FREE below!

                                      Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                      Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                      English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                      Leave a comment below & practice your English!

                                      The post AE 944 – Aussie Slang: Bad News appeared first on Aussie English.

                                      ]]>
                                      https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-944-aussie-slang-bad-news/feed/ 0
                                      AE 936 – The Goss: The World’s Most ‘Instragrammable Bird’ & Australia’s Oldest-Ever Person https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-936-the-goss-the-worlds-most-instragrammable-bird-australias-oldest-ever-person/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-936-the-goss-the-worlds-most-instragrammable-bird-australias-oldest-ever-person/#respond Wed, 09 Jun 2021 03:30:06 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=159641 AE 936 – THE GOSS: The World’s Most ‘Instragrammable Bird’ & Australia’s Oldest-Ever Person Learn Australian English by listening to this…

                                      The post AE 936 – The Goss: The World’s Most ‘Instragrammable Bird’ & Australia’s Oldest-Ever Person appeared first on Aussie English.

                                      ]]>

                                      AE 936 - THE GOSS:

                                      The World's Most 'Instragrammable Bird' & Australia's Oldest-Ever Person

                                      Learn Australian English by listening to this episode of The Goss!

                                      These are conversations with my old man Ian Smissen for you to learn more about Australian culture, news, and current affairs. 

                                      pete smissen, ian smissen, host of aussie english podcast, the goss australia, australia news 2021, australia current affairs, listen to australian conversation, frogmouth bird, australia's oldest person, australia oldest male 2021

                                      In today's episode...

                                      We talk about the world’s most Instagrammable bird — the frog mouth bird!

                                      Tune in today and find out why this bird, once named as ‘the most unfortunate-looking bird’, now holds the title of Instagram’s most popular bird.

                                      Improve your listening skills today – listen, play, & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                                      Watch & listen to the convo!

                                      Listen to today's episode!

                                      This is the FREE podcast player. You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                                      If you’d like to use the Premium Podcast Player as well as get the downloadable transcripts, audio files, and videos for episodes, you can get instant access by joining the Premium Podcast membership here.

                                      Listen to today's episode!

                                      Use the Premium Podcast Player below to listen and read at the same time.

                                      You can fast-forward and rewind easily as well as slow down or speed up the audio to suit your level.

                                      Transcript of AE 936 - The Goss: The World's Most 'Instragrammable Bird' & Australia's Oldest-Ever Person

                                      G'day, you mob. Pete here, and this is another episode of Aussie English, the number one place for anyone and everyone wanting to learn Australian English. So, today I have a Goss' episode for you where I sit down with my old man, my father, Ian Smissen, and we talk about the week's news, whether locally down under here in Australia or non-locally overseas in other parts of the world.

                                      Okay, and we sometimes also talk about whatever comes to mind. Right. If we can think of something interesting to share with you guys related to us or Australia, we also talk about that in The Goss'. So, these episodes are specifically designed to try and give you content about many different topics where we're obviously speaking in English and there are multiple people having a natural and spontaneous conversation in English.

                                      So, it is particularly good to improve your listening skills. In order to complement that, though, I really recommend that you join the podcast membership or the Academy membership at AussieEnglish.com.au, where you will get access to the full transcripts of these episodes, the PDFs, the downloads, and you can also use the online PDF reader to read and listen at the same time.

                                      Okay, so if you really, really want to improve your listening skills fast, get the transcript, listen and read at the same time, keep practising and that is the quickest way to level up your English. Anyway, I've been rabbiting on a bit. I've been talking a bit. Let's just get into this episode, guys. Smack the bird and let's get into it.

                                      So, the other day I was walking around, I'm trying to smash out 10,000 steps a day, you know, about 8 kilometres. And the good thing about new development zones like this one in Curlewis is that they put parks everywhere.

                                      Yeah, there's green corridors everywhere.

                                      Yeah, things for nature. I mean, and the other thing that I've noticed about Curlewis is because they put banksia plants throughout all these streets, we get heaps of these black cockatoos, yellowtail black cockatoos. You can just hear them constantly and they're just eating the banksia things. I don't know if it's seasonal, but at the moment they're all over the place. It's probably the same group that I see every day.

                                      ...Also eat the cypress pinecones, which are not native. And so, there's a lot of the old farming land that used cypress because it grew quickly, and it was dense. And you make this effectively tree height hedges.

                                      Wind wall, right?

                                      Yeah. And for wind protection, so there's a lot of those around as well. And that is seasonal whenever they've got the new cones coming up.

                                      Yeah. So anyway, I was going for my walk, and I noticed this huge shadow sitting on the top of a sign when I was wal- It was at night that I was walking through one of these little areas and was like, Jesus Christ, what the hells that? And, you know, sort of move myself around so that I could see what it was in the moonlight, and it was a huge tawny frogmouth, you know. So, yeah.

                                      Anyway, so I found this article and these guys are just really cool animals. I think they're just the weirdest looking, shocking...

                                      They are.

                                      ...Face birds, like just...

                                      Yeah. They're basically a mouth and eyes with legs.

                                      That's it. That's it. So, yeah. Pretty much like a snake, right. Except with a mouth and eyes and a bum.

                                      Yes.

                                      So, researchers find that the frog mouth is the world's most Instagrammable bird.

                                      Instagrammable.

                                      That's a nice word there.

                                      That's bizarre...

                                      Able to be Instagrammed.

                                      Yeah. This is one of these ones where a brand name becomes a noun. It's a proper noun. Then it becomes a noun...

                                      ...This would be an adjective. Right.

                                      And then it becomes a verb, the verb to Instagram. And then we turn the verb into an adjective by making it the ability to do something that- So, yeah. It's sort of this Instagram evolution of language where you go from a proper noun to an adjective.

                                      YouTubable.

                                      Yeah. YouTubable.

                                      Googable.

                                      Well the verb to Google. Let's Google that.

                                      Yeah, well YouTube it.

                                      Yeah.

                                      Facebook it.

                                      Facebook it.

                                      So, to read out a little bit here, study of likes on the photo sharing app has perhaps surprisingly deemed the Australian and Southeast Asian native most aesthetically appealing. That's surprising in and of itself, more so than it's this bird.

                                      Looks like a baby.

                                      You reckon?

                                      Yeah. Well...

                                      It looks like a baby?

                                      But it's got baby features.

                                      Yeah. As in huge eyes.

                                      ...The big, huge eyes and that's, you know, you look at dolls, teddy bears, you know, baby animals. Even the adults just look like the most ridiculous things. But they're- They got the big eyes and the big smile.

                                      So, if someone were to ask what the most instagrammable bird in the world would be, it's unlikely that the frog mouth, whose main aesthetic goal is to look like a jagged tree branch, would be front of mind. But it seems science says otherwise. The dishevelled looking Australian and...

                                      Dishevelled.

                                      Brutal.

                                      That is brutal. They're not dishevelled.

                                      ...It's like homeless.

                                      Look up the meaning of dishevelled. Dishevelled means- Hang on.

                                      Yeah, like hair everywhere, scruffy.

                                      I can't do dishevelled now because I don't have long hair anymore.

                                      Unkempt, right. Messy.

                                      Yes, messy. But they're not.

                                      So, the dishevelled looking Australian and Southeast Asian native taking out the top spot in a study from Germany's university hospital Jena. Why on Earth was University Hospital Jena studying this? Which aimed to see which bird species reigned supreme on the photo sharing app. The study, published last week by German researchers, sorry guys, Dr Katja Thömmes and Dr Gregor Hayn-Leichsenring...

                                      Leichsenring.

                                      ...Leichsenring set out to analyse nearly 30,000 bird photos from nine popular avian photography Instagram accounts, using an algorithm to record which photos comparatively attracted the most likes on the photo sharing platform. And there you go, the tawny frogmouth won.

                                      Yeah, they don't- What they don't say is how they did the numbers.

                                      I guess they would have just worked out...

                                      Yeah. Is it proportional?

                                      Yeah.

                                      But if there was one...

                                      How many likes? Which got the most likes? Total likes or was it one photo that just got all those likes?

                                      ...One photo gets a million likes or there were 10,000 photos of tawny frogmouths and they all got one like each, but there were no other photographs.

                                      So, are tawny frogmouths owls, Dad?

                                      No, they are not.

                                      But they look like owls, and they hunt at night.

                                      Well, in fact their scientific name...

                                      This was pretty cool.

                                      ...It comes from- Yeah. I...

                                      You got it in front of you?

                                      I do. Podargus strigoides. Strigoides actually means, looks like an owl and podargus comes from a Greek word meaning Gout and...

                                      Brutal.

                                      Gout, for those of you who don't know the word in English, it's a disease typically used to be thought of as a fat old rich man's disease because it's basically where uric acid crystals form in the joints of particularly the feet, you know, big toes and so on. So, it's very difficult to walk if you've got really painful feet. And so, their called that because they actually don't walk very well.

                                      They very rarely walk; they fly and then land on a branch and hold on.

                                      Because people with gout.

                                      People with gout, yeah. People with gout with wings, no.

                                      That's it. People with gout, they just- They can't walk so they fly.

                                      ...End up looking like tawny frogmouths. No, so tawny frogmouths don't walk very well. So, I think the original person who obviously looked at it walking went, oh, its, you know, its bumbling along...

                                      Dudes got gout.

                                      ...gout. Yeah.

                                      Oh, man. Yeah. They're awesome birds, though. They are really cute. Look these guys up if you haven't already guys.

                                      They are really good. So, yeah, they look like owls but they're not.

                                      So, what does it say here? They got an IAA score, works by taking the absolute number of likes from a post and then factoring in the size of the account and the time the post has been public. It then produces an expected number of likes the post should receive and scores it based on the percentage of likes it received over or under this. And the tawny frogmouth averaged nineteen leaving with a respectable margin.

                                      The IAA score.

                                      What is it? While on the other hand, the Sandpiper was given a negative twenty-three. Brutal.

                                      Sandpipers, are cute.

                                      This is almost like, you know, face dating apps where you judge people based on their appearance, but for birds.

                                      I'm surprised like, yeah, I think twenty frogmouths are great, but I'm surprised it's not a parrot.

                                      You don't reckon?

                                      Yeah.

                                      Just too many parrots, Dad. I think the tawny frogmouth, though, probably also is just a weird looking bird. So, people see that and their like, well, Jesus. Give that a like.

                                      Yeah.

                                      Whereas they see a parrot and they're like, oh, yeah. It's a parrot.

                                      Exactly.

                                      So, what would you do then if you got to vote on Australia's most, you know, cute or attractive or Instagrammable birds, what bird would you be most likely to share a photo of on Instagram?

                                      If I wanted the most likes?

                                      Meh, what about pelicans?

                                      Pelican I...

                                      They are fricking weird looking birds.

                                      ...Not that I'm trying to get people to look at my Instagram account. Look at my Instagram account, and I probably got more photographs of pelicans than any other bird on there.

                                      Well, they're big and they're freaky looking and they've got these big eyes that are just, you know, don't...

                                      But that big bill, well, it's just a basically a, you know...

                                      Paddle.

                                      ...Pouch of skin.

                                      Especially when they catch something, and they try and eat it and they just look so uncoordinated. I saw a bunch down at the Queenscliff boat ramp a while back and I think...

                                      ...Hang around there for the fishermen.

                                      Yeah, some- A fishermen came in with his boat and tossed over a fish that obviously, for whatever reason, he didn't want and it was too big for any of the pelicans, so they just kept fighting over it and trying to swallow it and then having to, you know, just puke it up or whatever, because it was like one of these ones that was like flat, but really sort of tall, the fish.

                                      So, it was like just it couldn't obviously fit in its throat. Yeah, but- Yeah, they're weird looking birds. So, what would you pick?

                                      A pelican.

                                      Yeah. You reckon.

                                      Yeah. I reckon their pretty good. Well, that and a parrot. I, you know, they're a- but, yeah, you know, you're right, there are so many Australian parrots, but I think sulphur-crested cockatoos, they're the funniest birds.

                                      Why is that?

                                      Because they're idiots, but they're intelligent idiots. Because they're just smart arses.

                                      What do you reckon makes parrots so clever, especially cockatoos? What is it that underlies that?

                                      ...Evolutionary trigger...

                                      Yeah.

                                      ...Decided that an entire order of birds was going to be smart. Now, you could argue that corvids as a family, totally unrelated family, are smart as well.

                                      But it's almost like corvids don't have a sense of humour.

                                      No.

                                      It seems like parrots have a sense of humour...

                                      Corvids are clever like a fox.

                                      Yeah.

                                      Parrots are clever like a stand-up comedian.

                                      Yeah. And they know it.

                                      They know it, exactly.

                                      Like, that's the thing that blows my mind, I think about a lot of these parrots.

                                      ...Cockatoos and African parrots, African greys and things like that.

                                      Yeah. Just how it seems like they're really switched on.

                                      ...Sense of humour.

                                      Yeah. And you wonder what selected for- I guess, sociality in these animals...

                                      Well, they're social, yeah. Cockatoos are very social. You get very large groups of...

                                      Yeah.

                                      ...Of them and who knows. But you get very large groups of starlings, but starlings aren't particularly smart. I had no idea, that's one of those mysteries of sort of avian evolution as to what was that little trigger that somewhere in, you know- Particularly the Cockatoo family, but the, you know, the just the whole order of birds...

                                      See what we find here on Google.

                                      What was the trigger to make them so smart.

                                      I love this. When you type this sort of stuff in. Why are cockatoos so, and then it says loud, crazy, expensive, funny, cuddly, needy, dirty, pink, loud?

                                      But if you want to- Do yourself a favour, if you want to look up stupid parrots, there are several, in fact, there are a lots of YouTube videos of Australian cockatoos, sulphur-crested cockatoos dancing. Just Google or YouTube the verb, to YouTube, sulphur- Cockatoo dancing. They are ridiculous.

                                      Yeah. I'd love to get one as a pet, but I know it would out live me.

                                      A long way.

                                      Yeah.

                                      Yeah. Well, one of our local wildlife rescue places has cockatoos there that have, you know, just been donated to them by, you know, estates after people have died.

                                      Yeah.

                                      These people who've lived into their 80s and got a cockatoo as a pet when they were kids and the cockatoos still alive and they're not. Just- They can live for 100 years. It's just crazy. And again, what's the evolutionary thing to- You know, these are big birds. Your average little budgerigars, if you get 10 years out of a budgerigar, you've done very well.

                                      What have we got here? We've got a whole bunch. Yeah, same with galahs. So, white cockatoos 40 to 60 years, galahs are 40 years, sulphur-crested cockatoos 20 to 40 years, Carnaby's black cockatoos 25 to 50 years ago...

                                      This is just the average lifespan in the wild. Yeah.

                                      Yeah, exactly. Yeah. That's crazy. Sydney's old croc of a cockie was a legend at 120.

                                      Yeah.

                                      A cockatoo lived to 120 years. Jesus. Well, I guess that leads us on to the last part of this story, we could talk about...

                                      Yeah.

                                      ...The oldest ever Australian.

                                      The oldest ever Australian.

                                      That's a good segway. Good job, Pete.

                                      Good job. Well done.

                                      Yeah. This is crazy...

                                      Thanks to Kruger. Good on ya, Dexter. Happy Birthday a while ago. He's gone past his 111th birthday, three months into his 112 year.

                                      Jesus. So, he was born in 1910. I think we've spoken about him on the podcast before, actually. Yeah, we have.

                                      Yeah. I think maybe, yeah, when he turned 111. Yeah. In January. So...

                                      Insane.

                                      But yeah, he's still going on. And look, the one takeaway which wasn't in the thing...

                                      ...Was doing yoga, I think.

                                      There's two takeaways, he does his daily exercise, which is a bit of yoga, and he goes for a walk and the manager of the old people's home that lives in says he's a lot fitter and brighter than most of our 80- and 90-year old's...

                                      Jesus. You wonder if they just look at him and they're just like, God damn.

                                      Yeah. And look, there's a couple of ones that I think his son, his 74-year-old son said his father's simple lifestyle and balanced diet, complete with plenty of salt, sugar and fat and a lot to do with his age.

                                      Yeah.

                                      But I also love the one line about his weekly delicacy he credits to his longevity, chicken brains.

                                      Jesus.

                                      So...

                                      They always say that and then it turns out it's genetic and they have the genes that allow them.

                                      You know, chickens have a head and that in...

                                      Their brains.

                                      ...Is some brains and they are delicious little things. There's only one bite. So, chicken brains is the secret to long life, if you believe Dexter. What do you think it would be like getting to 111 years? Do you reckon you'd be able to remember much of what actually happened when you were, say, a 10-year-old, a 20 year, 30-year-old?

                                      ...Clearly, Dexter's still got his wits about him, he's not suffering from any forms of dementia or something.

                                      He's 80 years older than me.

                                      Yeah.

                                      Like, that's- It's insane. I highly, highly doubt that I will be 111.

                                      ...Become an old person at 80. Yeah, so. Well, that would be me at what? So, if that was 80 years from now, it would be 2101. Right. So, that's I've got to get to 111, or 110 to get into the next century. Now I've got to do it, all right. There's a target. There's a target. What do you think his-?

                                      I always wondered, and I worry about sort of talking to my grandparents about this, although ironically, I think Nana and Grandpa, my mother's parents are a lot more open about death and age and being old than they were when I was younger.

                                      Yeah. Well...

                                      When they were younger.

                                      ...Well, you know, every day anybody lives you're a day closer to dying. And I think when you live a long time- If you get into the 90s, you've got to realise that, you know, there's no long-term plans here. I'm not going to go out and get a 30-year loan to buy another house, you know, this is- So, I think people are much more open to that and accepting that, you know, the inevitable It's probably just a reality of things, but...

                                      It just...

                                      ...Doesn't mean you want to die, it's just that...

                                      No, for sure.

                                      ...You just accept that there's a fair chance that I'm going to die in the next few years.

                                      Well...

                                      Which is different until you get- I'm sure until you get into your 70s or 80s, you don't think like that. No. Well, how do you think about it?

                                      I don't think like that.

                                      But as in like, I'm going to die soon.

                                      Well, you don't think you're going to die soon. I don't, you know, have a real- I don't want to die, but I don't have a fear of death.

                                      Yeah.

                                      I don't have a fear of being dead because I don't...

                                      I don't think many people have a fear of being dead, unless they're worried about going to hell.

                                      Yeah, well, I have no religious beliefs at all. So, in fact, my religious beliefs are anti-religious. But that's- It's...

                                      The transition between living and death that I freak out about and I just hope it's quick and painless.

                                      ...Dying process is the- And again, it's not a fear, it's just that, you know, you don't want to go through something that is going to be long and painful. Yeah, exactly. So, but yeah, somebody like Dexter- Yeah, imagine what he can remember, the things that he's seen, and they mention it here...

                                      ...He's lived through the First World War...

                                      ...Lived through the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean War, the Vietnam War, the Middle Eastern Wars...

                                      The Cold War.

                                      ...Involved in, the Cold War.

                                      Well, he was alive before we had planes right or around the time the very, very first planes were, you know, just flying a few hundred metres? Yeah, he was around before cars or at least, you know, combustion engine cars right on the roads...

                                      There were a few around.

                                      But that wouldn't have been widespread. That would not have been...

                                      Your average person didn't own them until the 1930s.

                                      And he was a cattle grazier. Right. So, it's crazy to think...

                                      ...Horse around and...

                                      He was living a pretty rough life as well, you would imagine. It wouldn't have been a kettle of fish, just- I mean, kettle of fish. Something easy where it would have been a completely different kettle of fish to someone who, like myself, is just living by working in a studio, chilling out.

                                      Well, his son, he says he lived through a period that it was a lot less stressful than what we as a society face today.

                                      Yeah.

                                      And so, you look at that and go, it's probably true. And even, you know, Dexter himself talks about, you know, computer age and, you know, technology and he says just makes life more stressful because it's just quicker and you don't get time to relax.

                                      Yeah. Do you ever get nostalgic about the past in Australia and wish, you know, for instance, would it been really cool to have been a cattle grazier 100 years ago where you just get to hang out with your animals, with your horse, with your nearest family?

                                      Bloody hard work, though.

                                      Physically.

                                      Physical Work.

                                      Yeah, but it's simpler in terms of...

                                      Yeah. Not a lot of stress other than drought and flood and fire, you know, natural disasters are about the only stress that you have.

                                      Well, Indigenous people that you're potentially encroaching on the land of theirs...

                                      Well, if you go back far enough, yeah.

                                      Bush rangers.

                                      Bushrangers.

                                      Yeah. But yeah, congratulations, Dexter. That's absolutely insane. I can't imagine getting to 111...

                                      And 124 days.

                                      Yeah, and 124 days. I guess you count it at that point. Do you get another letter from the queen at 110?

                                      I don't know. I don't know. Well, you had to, I wonder whether the queen will send herself a congratulatory letter on a 100th birthday.

                                      If she makes it.

                                      Well, I think she'll live till she's, you know, she'll outlive her children, I reckon.

                                      Prince Charles is just like, God damn it.

                                      Too bloody stubborn to die like her mother.

                                      All right. Well, I guess we're finishing there, guys. But thanks for joining us. See you next time.

                                      Bye.

                                      Peace.

                                      Alrighty, you mob. Thank you so much for listening to or watching this episode of The Goss'. If you would like to watch the video, if you're currently listening to it and not watching it, you can do so on the Aussie English Channel on YouTube. You'll be able to subscribe to that, just search "Aussie English" on YouTube.

                                      And if you're watching this and not listening to it, you can check this episode out also on the Aussie English podcast, which you can find via my free Aussie English podcast application on both Android and iPhone. You can download that for free or you can find it via any other good podcast app that you've got on your phone. Spotify, podcast from iTunes, Stitcher, whatever it is.

                                      I'm your host, Pete. Thank you so much for joining me. I hope you have a ripper of a day, and I will see you next time. Peace.

                                      Listen & Read with the Premium Podcast Player

                                      Get more out of every episode!

                                      Premium Podcast members get access to...

                                      • All 900+ podcast episodes including member-only episodes
                                      • Member-only episode video lessons
                                      • Downloadable transcript PDFs & audio files for every episode

                                      Download my eBook!

                                        We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                        Share

                                        Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                                        Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                                          Join my 5-Day FREE English Course!

                                          Complete this 5-day course and learn how to study effectively with podcasts in order to level up your English quickly whilst having fun!

                                            Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                            Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                            Download it for FREE below!

                                            Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                            Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                            English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                            Have you got the Aussie English app?

                                            Listen to all your favourite episodes of the Aussie English Podcast on the official AE app.

                                            Download it for FREE below!

                                            Want to improve a specific area of your English quickly and enjoyably?

                                            Check out my series of Aussie English Courses.

                                            English pronunciation, use of phrasal verbs, spoken English, and listening skills!

                                            Leave a comment below & practice your English!

                                            The post AE 936 – The Goss: The World’s Most ‘Instragrammable Bird’ & Australia’s Oldest-Ever Person appeared first on Aussie English.

                                            ]]>
                                            https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-936-the-goss-the-worlds-most-instragrammable-bird-australias-oldest-ever-person/feed/ 0
                                            AE 929 – Expression: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-929-expression-a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-929-expression-a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats/#respond Sun, 30 May 2021 03:30:37 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=159162 The post AE 929 – Expression: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats appeared first on Aussie English.

                                            ]]>

                                            Learn Australian English in this English Expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast.

                                            These are weekly episodes where I teach you how to use English expressions like a fair dinkum Australian!

                                            For this episode, we talk about the expression “a rising tide lifts all boats”.

                                            Get a load of these excellent activities!

                                            • Get this week’s top story about a koala overpopulation in Cape Otway
                                            • Listen to a koala calling out for a mate
                                            • Share to you this week’s funny joke (haha!)
                                            • Breakdown the meaning of the words in this expression
                                            • Discover what the expression means
                                            • Know the origin of the expression
                                            • Learn how to use the expression in context
                                            • Go through a pronunciation exercise
                                            • Take note of some pronunciation sounds to be careful about, and

                                            Tell you about Australia’s famous “Shipwreck Coast” and the Loch Ard wreck!

                                            Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                                            Download the FREE PDF worksheet by clicking the button below!


                                            itunes-logo (1)
                                            spotify-small (1) (1)
                                            icon-stitcher (1)

                                            Get more out of every episode!

                                            Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                            • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                            • Understand every word in every episode.
                                            • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                            • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                            Download my eBook!

                                              We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                              Recent Podcast Episodes

                                              The post AE 929 – Expression: A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats appeared first on Aussie English.

                                              ]]>
                                              https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-929-expression-a-rising-tide-lifts-all-boats/feed/ 0
                                              AE 924 – WWP: eBay, Photography, and Penguins https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-924-wwp-ebay-photography-and-penguins/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-924-wwp-ebay-photography-and-penguins/#respond Sun, 23 May 2021 03:30:16 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=158934 The post AE 924 – WWP: eBay, Photography, and Penguins appeared first on Aussie English.

                                              ]]>

                                              Learn Australian English by listening to this latest episode of the Aussie English podcast!

                                              Finally! It’s been awhile since I actually “walked” while recording this new “Walking With Pete” episode.

                                              I got a rush of outdoors this day and tell you about these special lenses that I’ve been looking for.

                                              Have you checked the episodes with the new studio? Let me know what you think!

                                              Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!


                                              itunes-logo (1)
                                              spotify-small (1) (1)
                                              icon-stitcher (1)

                                              Get more out of every episode!

                                              Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                              • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                              • Understand every word in every episode.
                                              • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                              • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                              Download my eBook!

                                                We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                The post AE 924 – WWP: eBay, Photography, and Penguins appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                ]]>
                                                https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-924-wwp-ebay-photography-and-penguins/feed/ 0
                                                Ep005: An Introduction To Australian Slang Words https://aussieenglish.com.au/ep005-an-introduction-to-australian-slang-words/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ep005-an-introduction-to-australian-slang-words/#respond Thu, 13 May 2021 03:35:42 +0000 https://theaussieenglishclassroom.com/new/ep005-an-introduction-to-australian-slang-words/ The post Ep005: An Introduction To Australian Slang Words appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                ]]>

                                                Learn Australian English by listening to this Australian Slang episode on the Aussie English podcast!

                                                In this episode, I am going to introduce you to the unique Australian slang words.

                                                We love shortening words so much that it has become a unique part of the Australian culture!

                                                Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!


                                                itunes-logo (1)
                                                spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                icon-stitcher (1)

                                                Get more out of every episode!

                                                Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                Download my eBook!

                                                  We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                  Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                  The post Ep005: An Introduction To Australian Slang Words appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                  ]]>
                                                  https://aussieenglish.com.au/ep005-an-introduction-to-australian-slang-words/feed/ 0
                                                  AE 891 – Aussie English Jokes! https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-891-aussie-english-jokes/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-891-aussie-english-jokes/#respond Sat, 03 Apr 2021 02:30:02 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=157645 The post AE 891 – Aussie English Jokes! appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                  ]]>

                                                  Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie English podcast!

                                                  I got a request from one of my followers who seem to love my pun-ny Dad jokes. So here it is! A collection of my Australian-ish English jokes for you to share. Remember, telling jokes is part of effective communication skills. Feel free to tell these to anyone, and don’t forget to laugh!

                                                  Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!


                                                  itunes-logo (1)
                                                  spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                  icon-stitcher (1)

                                                  Get more out of every episode!

                                                  Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                  • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                  • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                  • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                  • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                  Download my eBook!

                                                    We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                    Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                    The post AE 891 – Aussie English Jokes! appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                    ]]>
                                                    https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-891-aussie-english-jokes/feed/ 0
                                                    AE 885 – Expression: Buy A Lemon https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-885-expression-buy-a-lemon/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-885-expression-buy-a-lemon/#respond Sun, 28 Mar 2021 02:30:46 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=157582 The post AE 885 – Expression: Buy A Lemon appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                    ]]>

                                                    Learn Australian English in this English Expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast. These are weekly episodes where I teach you how to use English expressions like a fair dinkum Australian!

                                                    For this episode, we talk about the expression “buy a lemon”.

                                                    Breakdown the meaning of the words in this expression,
                                                    Discover what the expression means,
                                                    Learn how to use the expression,
                                                    Listen to real dialogue examples of the expression in use,
                                                    Go through a pronunciation exercise, and

                                                    I talk about Australia’s most ordered soft drink – lemon, lime, and bitters!

                                                    Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                                                    Download the FREE PDF worksheet by clicking the button below!


                                                    itunes-logo (1)
                                                    spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                    icon-stitcher (1)

                                                    Get more out of every episode!

                                                    Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                    • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                    • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                    • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                    • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                    Download my eBook!

                                                      We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                      Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                      The post AE 885 – Expression: Buy A Lemon appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                      ]]>
                                                      https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-885-expression-buy-a-lemon/feed/ 0
                                                      AE 882 – Aussie Slang: A Bad Trot https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-882-aussie-slang-a-bad-trot/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-882-aussie-slang-a-bad-trot/#respond Fri, 26 Mar 2021 02:30:59 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=155377 The post AE 882 – Aussie Slang: A Bad Trot appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                      ]]>

                                                      Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie Slang series where I teach you how to use Australian slang – like a fair dinkum Australian!

                                                      In this episode, we talk about the Aussie slang term “a bad trot”. Learn what it means and how you can use it in your daily conversations.

                                                      Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!


                                                      itunes-logo (1)
                                                      spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                      icon-stitcher (1)

                                                      Get more out of every episode!

                                                      Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                      • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                      • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                      • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                      • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                      Download my eBook!

                                                        We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                        Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                        The post AE 882 – Aussie Slang: A Bad Trot appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                        ]]>
                                                        https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-882-aussie-slang-a-bad-trot/feed/ 0
                                                        AE 879 – Expression: A Bad Apple https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-879-expression-a-bad-apple/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-879-expression-a-bad-apple/#respond Sun, 21 Mar 2021 02:30:25 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=155339 The post AE 879 – Expression: A Bad Apple appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                        ]]>

                                                        Learn Australian English in this English Expression episode of the Aussie English Podcast. These are weekly episode where I teach you how to use English expressions like a fair dinkum Australian!

                                                        For this episode, we talk about the expression “a bad apple”.

                                                        Breakdown the meaning of the words in this expression,
                                                        Discover what the expression means,
                                                        Learn how to use the expression,
                                                        Listen to real dialogue examples of the expression in use,
                                                        Go through a pronunciation exercise, and

                                                        I talk about a kind of apple grown in Australia – the granny smith apple!

                                                        Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!

                                                        Download the FREE PDF audio worksheet by clicking the button below!


                                                        itunes-logo (1)
                                                        spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                        icon-stitcher (1)

                                                        Get more out of every episode!

                                                        Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                        • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                        • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                        • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                        • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                        Download my eBook!

                                                          We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                          Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                          The post AE 879 – Expression: A Bad Apple appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                          ]]>
                                                          https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-879-expression-a-bad-apple/feed/ 0
                                                          AE 876 – Aussie Slang: Ambo https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-876-aussie-slang-ambo/ https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-876-aussie-slang-ambo/#respond Fri, 19 Mar 2021 02:30:48 +0000 https://aussieenglish.com.au/?p=155313 The post AE 876 – Aussie Slang: Ambo appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                          ]]>

                                                          Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie Slang series where I teach you how to use the word “ambo” like a fair dinkum Australian!

                                                          Improve your listening skills today – listen, play & pause this episode – and start speaking like a native English speaker!


                                                          itunes-logo (1)
                                                          spotify-small (1) (1)
                                                          icon-stitcher (1)

                                                          Get more out of every episode!

                                                          Here's what you get when you sign up!

                                                          • Read while you listen using the Premium Podcast player.
                                                          • Understand every word in every episode.
                                                          • Download all PDF transcripts and MP3s for 600+ episodes.
                                                          • Get access to bonus member-only episodes.

                                                          Download my eBook!

                                                            We respect your privacy. Unsubscribe at anytime.

                                                            Recent Podcast Episodes

                                                            The post AE 876 – Aussie Slang: Ambo appeared first on Aussie English.

                                                            ]]>
                                                            https://aussieenglish.com.au/ae-876-aussie-slang-ambo/feed/ 0