Easy English: Learn English with everyday conversations

This week, we announce our 14-day challange in the new year for you to kick-start your 2026 and improve your English. Is also opens an early Christmas present from Mitch on the podcast and they compare the differences and similarities of Christmas time in the UK and Germany, before Mitch tells a couple of Christmas-themed jokes... Merry Christmas! Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Intro Isi: [0:23] Good morning! Mitch: [0:25] Merry Christmas! Isi: [0:27] It's not Christmas yet. - It's not Christmas yet. T'was the night before Christmas. Isi: [0:32] It's also not the night before Christmas. Mitch: [0:35] But, this is the Easy English Christmas Special. Isi: [0:41] Oh, it sounds like Gavin and Stacey Christmas special, but not as exciting. Mitch: [0:47] And we have a couple of Christmassy features, including me gifting Isi her first early Christmas gift. Isi: [0:55] Yes? Mitch: [0:56] From Santa Mitch. Isi: [0:58] Oh, not real Santa. He's not yet around the house, is he? Oh, I'm excited. Why? Mitch: [1:07] Because you've been a very good person this year and the elves told me. Isi: [1:13] To give you an early one. Okay. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Isi guesses and explains 10 commonly used idioms in conversations, while Mitch explains where they came from. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Watch the episode on YouTube: 10 Useful Idioms for English Conversations (https://youtu.be/FxgpbBmclnI) (Easy English 216) Transcript Mitch: [0:22] So, today, we want to bring you an episode introducing everyday English idioms. And, what I've done is I've compiled some images for isi to look at and we're going to describe them for you audio listeners. And for you YouTube watchers/viewers, we're going to look at these images, and try to distinguish what the idiom is and what it means. Make sense? Isi: [0:52] Yeah, let's start. Mitch: [0:53] Let's start. Isi: [0:54] I have questions. Mitch: [0:55] Okay, so here is number one, everyday English idiom. What are you thinking? Isi: [1:03] Instead of a head, that person has a bowl of baked beans, as a head. Mitch: [1:09] Baked beans, very English. So? Isi: [1:13] Do you have a bean head? Mitch: [1:15] No. Isi: [1:15] You're a bean hat. Mitch: [1:16] A bean head, no. A bean head. Isi: [1:19] Could that mean that you're like, an idiot? Yeah, no? Mitch: [1:23] A bean head. Yeah, like a tiny brain. But no, that's not the idiom. this is an.. - Stew... you are... stew? - No, you know this idiom you use it a lot, actually. Or I use it a lot... - His head is farting? - Yeah, that's the correct idiom. Isi: [1:38] They're all in his body Mitch: [1:39] Imagine that the beans are filling up from his... up through his legs. - Full of beans! - He is... Isi: [1:46] That's a weird picture for it, though. Did you find that, for 'full of beans'? Did chat ChatGPT do this for you Mitch: [1:51] I made all these images on an AI image generator. Isi: [1:55] That's 'full of beans' Mitch: [1:57] That is the best way I could describe 'full of beans'. Okay, tell me then, what does 'full of beans' mean, and when would you use it? Isi: [2:05] Um... you would describe a person or yourself. Mitch: [2:10] Yeah. Isi: [2:11] I think you don't really say it about yourself. Mitch: [2:13] No. Isi: [2:14] More about others. - Yeah. - If someone is in a very good mood, very active, busy, maybe a bit like, dancing around. Mitch: [2:24] Exactly. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Mitch and Isi find out facts, slang and phrases from Scotland. The duo then answer Marianne's question about British TV shows before Mitch reads out a few classic British jokes. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Mitch & Janusz's jokes video: British Jokes (https://youtu.be/ZyhFrcUP16w) (Easy English 168) Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:23] We've hit a milestone as well. I just... I didn't even notice. We're on episode 80. Isi: [0:30] When is 100? Mitch: [0:32] Next year sometime. Well, as it's the milestone, we'd like to say welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode 80. Isi: [0:42] Whoop, whoop. Mitch: [0:43] Wow. 80 episodes. Crazy. And welcome to any new people who have just discovered us. Isi: [0:50] Hello. Mitch: [0:51] Today, we've got a few topics and a brand new topic, which I'd like to make a continuous topic, that appears in every episode. But our main 'Topic of the Week' is a subject which was requested, in the last podcast by Marcel, from the Swiss-German border. Isi: [1:14] Scotland. - What? Mitch: [1:17] Oh yeah! - Scotland's not on the Swiss-German border. Isi: [1:21] But, wasn't that the topic. Mitch: [1:22] Yeah, so Marcel asked for us to talk about Scotland. And, one issue we have with that is... we have been to Scotland right? - We have been... - But we don't know that much. - several times. - Yeah, several times, but we still didn't really know that much. - No. - So I did a bit of research and I’m gonna sort of, enlighten all of us, because a lot of these things I was like, what? Wow, that's amazing. There's so much interesting stuff about Scotland. And we also have an 'Unhelpful Advice' question, from another listener, who sent in a voice message. And then at the end, we have our new brand new section, 'British Jokes'. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

The pace of life, food habits, market days and more... Mitch and Isi talk about the culture shocks they discovered during their time in the south west of France Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Mitch: [0:23] Did you see this? They think they have a video now of... did you see that the Louvre was robbed? Isi: [0:29] Yeah, I didn't hear much about it. I saw this video as well. Mitch: [0:31] And they didn't have any... oh, you saw it? They think someone filmed two people escaping down a mechanical ladder, with the jewels, because they have no video footage from inside the Louvre. Sounds like such a... Isi: [0:43] Why don't they have videos in the Louvre? Mitch: [0:45] They do, but they said that there's the one place where they didn't have footage was exactly the place where they came in and stole it, which is like... Isi: [0:52] Which they probably knew. Mitch: [0:53] Inside job, maybe. Isi: [0:55] I mean, they can research that. Mitch: [0:56] I guess they scouted out for a while. But, funny that we speak about the Louvre being burgled because... Isi: [1:04] Did you say already we started this podcast? Oh, you don't anymore. Did we just... went in like this, now? Mitch: [1:11] We just start cas... casually. Isi: [1:13] Oh, our talk about the Louvre was already on podcast? Mitch: [1:17] Not you blowing your nose, though. I'll cut that bit out. Isi: [1:20] Good. Mitch: [1:22] This is a soft entry, we call it. Isi: [1:25] Okay, cool. Mitch: [1:28] But today, that links in with our topic today, because, we just returned back from France, and I thought we could talk about some key differences, between not, the UK and France, but very specific, I thought we could bring up differences between our two lives we have just been living, between Brighton and the south of France, specifically the Dordogne region, where we were living for some time. Isi: [1:58] Yes. Mitch: [1:58] And I've got five points, that I sort of, have realised are very different, between our lifestyle here and our lifestyle back then, when we were living in the south of France. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Crossing on a red light? Table service in a pub? Bus, supermarket and London Underground ettiquette? Mitch tests Isi with 5 very British scenarios to see if she knows the unwritten rules of British life. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Intro Isi: [0:22] Hello! Mitch: [0:24] Hello! Welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Isi: [0:28] I'm pro-leaving this out next time. We should... please leave your comment on Spotify, or your other favourite apps. On Spotify you can leave a comment and say, stop telling us which podcast we are listening to. Mitch: [0:43] What did I say at the beginning now? Hello! Isi: [0:46] How are you? Without an answer, but that's very English. Mitch: [0:51] It is very English. Isi: [0:52] Alright. - Alright, mate. - Alright. Mitch: [0:54] Alright. So today, we're going to be playing a little scenario game with you. - As usual. - As usual, putting you to the test. And proposing five situations, that will happen to you, in the UK and will happen to you in the UK, if you come. Let's call them 'unwritten rules of the UK'. Isi: [1:15] The first one is already an odd one then. There's no should or shouldn't in that one. well basically there's a should. Mitch: [1:21] Hold your horses. we'll get on to that in a minute. I just want to quickly say, that if you're listening to this podcast, on your podcast app, you should be made aware, that this podcast is also available as a video on YouTube and we're going to be showing some pictures, in-between Isi and I, of these sort of proposed scenarios. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership