Real English Conversations Episode 24

[Music]

welcome to speak English with Tiffany I

am teacher Tiffany let’s jump right in

and nothing just working on some stuff

here for work / business what are you up

to what you up to what you up to

now this expression means what are you

doing and it is also an informal

greeting usually used between friends

and family okay now here are some

examples of what you up do that have the

same meaning hey what you up to

right now I’m hungry it means what are

you doing right now I’m hungry I want to

go out to eat with you the second

example hey what are you up to today it

means what are you doing today and the

third example since you are off from

work what are you up to today

again you’re not working today so I’m

curious what are you going to be doing

now in the top right corner you’ll see

this right here the word owns so

throughout this conversation I call my

friend owns and she calls me owns this

is actually a nickname that we gave each

other several years ago so a nickname is

just something that you call your friend

or someone in your family okay it’s a

name that you guys choose to represent

your friendship okay so I say owns to my

friend and in the bottom left-hand

corner you see the word / so during the

conversation my friend said work /

business so now you can see that this /

just refers to this right here so when

you say it out loud you call this right

here a / ok me well I was working on

some things but I saw some pictures on

Instagram and I noticed that you went to

Miami this weekend

sure dude yes yes yes big things this is

an expression or slang that means

something great amazing or that you

believe to be good so it’s kind of an

expression used between friends or

family to express great amazing or

something good so I thought it was good

that she went to Miami so I said wow big

things Carnival now Carnival is a series

of events celebrated by Caribbean people

with dancing parades and other

festivities now you’ll see that I have

two different pictures the reason I put

these pictures here is because Carnival

also refers to an area or a place that

people go to have fun they ride a ferris

wheel they walk around and they buy

different food but this is not talking

about that type of carnival instead my

friend is referring to this Caribbean

event that happens in certain countries

and people dress up as you’ll see these

women in this picture are dressed up in

very amazing outfits and there’s lots of

music so my friend went to this type of

Carnival that’s what’s up that’s what’s

up this is an expression slang that

means you like what was said or done it

also means that you think something is

good so once again my friend is talking

about her trip that she took with

another one of her friends to Miami and

they went to Carnival and I said wow

that’s good or that’s what’s up

I know so when we lived together back in

Korea and we were working there we

always talked about traveling and stuff

but like what’s your favorite part about

traveling there like so many things but

I think I like like this to me in my

head I think of like different speeds so

like the worldís shoe

right like you see like the globe and

you’re like grief and I live in like

it’s like peace of it when you travel

even if it’s like internationally or

locally because from where I am Miami’s

three hours

three and change yeah good grief good

grief

now this is an expression that is used

to show irritation frustration or

surprise

so in our conversation my friend was

expressing her frustration when she said

good grief so let’s look at two

different examples using this expression

someone can say

good grief did you burn it again talking

about food or something else or you can

also say good grief it has started to

rain again

so again irritation or frustration maybe

you just got your hair done and you

didn’t want it to rain that’s yeah

that’s like still a whole other part of

the world it’s filled with like Hispanic

culture I mean again we left the

carnival no Caribbean carnival because

they know I think in Brazil they have

their own carnival but it’s you know

huge Hispanic culture like we went to

the beach and I’m really not doing a

huge beach person but on the side like

there’s much a restaurant it was nothing

to have him just walking on in bathing

suit I was like oh okay oh yours your

clothes oh yeah that’s right this is

mine this is another part of what my

enormous so I like seeing other people’s

norms other people’s cultures norm okay

this word is also used very often okay

an accepted standard or a way of being

or doing things okay you can also say

it’s a situation or type of behavior

that is expected and considered to be

typical in English we say norm so let’s

look at three examples using this word

so we can say one child per family is

becoming the norm in some countries it

means having one baby is becoming a norm

in some countries our second example

what are the social norms in your

country so we have social norms

referring to be

a VIIRS okay and our third example is

delays are likely to be the norm for air

travel next year it means they’re going

to be many delays next year

oh wait that wasn’t because of Carnival

it was literally just how they walk

around right so I’ve been to Miami

before and so the difference in going

for Carnival and this time was that it

was a little bit more of the Caribbean

like flag egde if you will flag egde

flag äj–

okay so what’s important about this word

is this part right here a GE this is a

suffix added to a word to emphasize it a

GE is added to it so this is an

expression or slang that means the

amount and types of flags that were

displayed so my friend was trying to

tell me that there were lots of flags

when she went to Carnival I could get

people to the beach and like on the side

where there’s like restaurants and stuff

people were just walking up and down

that’s just Miami on a Tuesday like I

never go to Miami years ago to visit one

of my friends but I was only there for a

short period of time but I remember

being hot but I don’t know her like

being by the beach as much with the

babies and stuff but I mean it’s that

right there experience plus your

experience so what you’ll notice is I

refer to her experience and then I gave

my experience this is a part of having a

good conversation okay you acknowledge

the person’s experience that you are

listening to and then you add it to your

own experience as well so it’s kind of

this back-and-forth connecting their

experience and your experience I mean

I’m down with being outside and walking

around and yeah myself and enjoying the

water at the same time exactly and

that’s the thing no one

I mean I know I generally was because I

was aware of it and so even if for me I

had all like this white mesh

what-have-you and I was still being

cautious of keeping it quote I mean it’s

mesh so like how much closure could I

have gotten out of it but still so I’m

like this is their norm like they’re

just okay you’re okay

button you know it’s just different

cultures and I just like it it’s yeah

and bracing in in others yeah yeah

you’ve done some traveling yourself I

mean you hung out in Korea for a minute

I can feel that okay this is an

expression that I personally use a lot

okay I can feel that so this expression

it’s also slang is used when you are

trying to show empathy with the person

or confirm agreement so when I wanted to

say that I agreed with what my friend

was saying I said oh I can feel that now

let’s look at an example of this okay

basically I am understanding and feeling

the same emotions as you or simply I

understand and agree

okay these are other examples that mean

the exact same thing so again I can feel

that was because of the culture aspect

because Korea was so opposite of my own

culture being an American and being an

african-american it was so honest that

that there were so many aspects of their

culture that really intrigued me and I

was really curious to intrigue intrigue

okay this is a common vocabulary word

now this word means to arouse the

curiosity or interest of okay or to

interest someone often because of an

unusual or unexpected quality remember I

was talking about my culture and Korean

culture okay and I was saying that I

noticed some differences and there were

also similarities but this aspect

actually is what intrigued me okay

now let’s look at some examples on the

bottom of the page it says I was

intrigued by his way

of talking okay his way of talking was

something that interested me the second

example he was intrigued by ancient

mysteries okay ancient mysteries were

something that caused him to be more

curious okay and finally we have they

were intrigued by the possibility of a

natural cure for cancer so finding a

cure for cancer was something that

interested them

so again intrigue understanding how

important it is to learn about cultures

and yeah realizing that the cultures in

Italy what they I guess the right and

that’s kind of a best way to know it I

was gonna say the best way to know it is

you can get a good amount from a book a

movie of this so when you’re in that

culture the pull of something okay this

is an expression that is used to express

the attraction or power of something

real quick remember earlier I taught you

this / okay / so Express the attraction

/ power of something but in this

situation will say or power of something

okay so let’s look at two examples right

here the pull of the movie business

started early on in America so the

attraction or power of the movie

business okay next example

it was the pull of his influence that

led to the passing of the bill so

whoever the man was he had a lot of

influence on other people so his

influence led to the bill being passed

so we call that the pull of his

influence it’s it’s completely different

and you know like you said you’re

African American Caribbean American and

so it’s it’s a different yeah but I

liked it I liked it a lot with tang I

think my uncle’s calling me so I got a

run real quick

but I’ll hit you back okay if you

enjoyed this real English conversation

please

click that like button below and also

hit the subscribe button if you would

like to continue studying English click

on one of the videos on the left or the

right of your screen and also if you

want to receive free weekly English

printable lessons from me go to speak

English with Tiffany dot-com / weekly or

you can just click the link in the

description below and as always remember

to speak English