Easy English: Learn English with everyday conversations

Mitch revives his version of the 12 Days of Christmas, before answering 25 icebreaker questions, all around Christmas! Find out his favourite Christmas film, candy, memory, present, beverage, flavour and more... Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Answer the icebreaker questions yourself: The 25 Best Christmas Icebreaker Questions (https://slideswith.com/blog/christmas-icebreaker-questions) Transcript Mitch: [0:00] Before we start this week's episode of Easy English, I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and rehash an old song I wrote. On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Bluetooth earphones, Ikea voucher, an ill-fitted t-shirt, tenner in a card, second-hand bike, multi-pack of condoms, stationery set, Sports Direct socks, Bottle of Baileys, six pack of Carling, two spa days And a Blu-Ray of Die Hard II. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

This week, Mitch talks about loosing a tooth & more car troubles. In Topic of the Week, Mitch talks about the UK's fear of bad weather and Trump's competitive handshake with Macron... with added Trump impression. In Mitch's Movie Club he reviews the ridiculous new Michael Bay movie and generic soundtrack and gives his take on the new Alien movie. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Become a Conversation Member: Improve YOUR Enlgish with our membership (https://www.patreon.com/easyenglishvideos) Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:23] Hello everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today we're flying solo, again. Isi is ill. Yeah, she doesn't feel so good, but the worst thing is her voice. It sounds like she's suddenly decided to start smoking 50 cigarettes a day. So I'm gonna fly solo. Yeah, we've both actually been in the wars, a little bit. Which isn't literal, don't worry. But it just means you've been sort of, fighting disease, I guess that's what it means, you versus germs. I haven't had a disease or anything, I actually had my tooth pulled out. When was that? Almost a week ago, I actually was supposed to have my tooth pulled on Monday, last Monday, we were driving to the dentist, and then, the car broke down, in the middle of the road, on the... in the third lane. Like, not just in the middle of the road, but in the middle of the lane, in the middle of the road. We were just sort of, stranded in the middle, calling our insurance to come pick us up, because we didn't really know what to do. As we were calling our insurance, the police turned up, at the side of the road and were like; "hey, you can't be here". Mitch: [1:49] And I said; "yeah, no sh*t. Help us!" And so they pushed us to the side of the road and I missed my appointment. I luckily, had an appointment on Tuesday and my tooth was pulled. Oh, is there anything worse than five people staring into your mouth. Someone reaching into your mouth and you have no idea what they're doing, you can only sort of, hear horrific noises. My appointment was late in the day, so... and they were kind of, I think, getting in the mood for going... going out. I don't know, maybe not, do dentists always play music? I don't know. Anyway, if you thought it couldn't be more horrific than having people reaching inside your mouth with tools you would use on your car, which is kind of ironic, just to make matters even worse, whilst he was pulling my tooth out, he was listening to Robbie Williams and whistling to it, at the same time. Mitch: [2:58] It was the song Angels. "And through it all, she offers me protection..." and at the same time, he was... I don't know, there was all kinds of noises happening inside my mouth and I had my eyes closed, because I just didn't want to see what instruments were going in, but I could just hear. And sometimes that's worse, because you're thinking what what kind of tool makes that noise!? And every so often you'd hear this like, crack... I'd hear this cracking noise, whilst whistling to angels, he'd say; "don't be concerned". "Don't be concerned". Mitch: [3:41] "Don't be concerned". But you know, we keep calm, we carry on, that's the motto of this story. I'm very British. Let's talk about things that have happened over the past month as a Topic of the Week. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

This week, with Christmas on the horizon, Mitch and Isi discuss gifts. They talk about the joy of giving gifts, Isi's thoughtful gifing vs Mitch's practical gifting. Mitch reveals the worst gift that Isi ever got him and are surprise gifts better than expected gifts for Isi? Even if it's a splintery, handmade spoon? Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes *Gift our membership perks for Christmas this year: Choose a membership tier to gift (https://www.patreon.com/easyenglishvideos/gift) Transcript Intro Isi: [0:22] Hello. Oh God. Hi. Mitch: [0:28] All of our podcasts always begin with you like hello oh god. Isi: [0:31] Oh god. Mitch: [0:32] My voice is gone. Illness update. Isi: [0:36] I'm back. Mitch: [0:38] I'm back. Oh yeah! Isi: [0:39] From the ill bed Mitch: [0:41] Did you hear the last podcast we... I recorded? Isi: [0:44] I didn't actually. Oh my god people will hate medidn't record uh didn't listen to it yet, no. But I want to listen to what you talked about. Oh god, yeah I didn't. I didn't have the headspace in my two-week illness to listen to it. Mitch: [0:58] Some could say I took one for the team. Some could say I took advantage of the fact you weren't here. Isi: [1:04] eah I'm back, had a nasty virus. Still am a bit... my voice is still not coming yeah it's kind of back now. Still have a bit of a, in the back. Mitch: [1:18] We're back in our usual position. Isi: [1:19] And it's not the morning, it's Sunday evening. (It is.) It is, I think the first time that we are having a little drinky. (We are, yeah.) With our podcast, since I don't know a year? We always did a morning podcast. Mitch: [1:37] And we're joined by a guest; Bert. Isi: [1:40] Yeah storm Bert. Mitch: [1:43] Storm Bert in the background just whistling away. Isi: [1:45] So we're two weeks, just home, two weekends two weeks and two weekends , just home, doing nothing. And now I was like, the weekend, I'm back. Mitch: [1:56] The last weekend before we go to visit our parents for Christmas. Isi: [2:01] Back to the mainland of Europe. So I was like, we do everything, we go to all the places, all the pubs, we meet friends. Mitch: [2:09] And what did we do? Isi: [2:10] We did not... well we did nearly nothing, because um, storm Bert came and... it's actually really really stormy and people... well, it was kind of like a weather warning to not leave too much and we obviously went for walks, because we got Nola, and it did feel not so good to do long drives, or go anywhere with a bus or so, because it's really stormy. Mitch: [2:38] Yeah, it's like the Michael Jackson 'Earth Song' music video out there. Isi: [2:41] So here we are, Sunday night episode, because tomorrow, actually, we will do an early, end of the workday. Because storm Bert will disappear tonight, they say. And then we will do, tomorrow afternoon, our Sunday. So hopefully a lot of Christmas deco, a nice Christmassy, pre-Christmassy dinner. Mitch: [3:03] We're in that early Christmas spirit, because, yeah, why the hell not? Isi: [3:09] Christmas is already full-on. Mitch: [3:10] And as I look at you, you are sort of engulfed in Christmas presents. They're on the table where we usually put the microphone. It's just a stash, a stack. Isi: [3:23] It's a lot of gifts, yeah. We have every gift we wanted for our families. We are absolutely ready for Christmas. And that's our topic today, gifts and gifting. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Whilst Isi is recovering from he illness, Mitch takes advantage to bring you his guide to horror films. This podcast is for both the horror lovers and horror haters, as Mitch poders what makes a great horror film. He lets you in on his favourite genre, how Arnold Schwarzenegger paved the way for his horror fascination and why a wardrobe is his Halloween costume of choice. He also gives his recommendations for people who love the things that go bump in the night, but also for people who prefer to sleep peacefully. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:00] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode number, tap, tap, tap, computing 54. Mitch: [0:12] I'm on my own. I've gone solo. I'm Sonny without Cher. I'm Jay-Z without Beyonce. I'm Will Smith without Jada, Barak without Michelle, etc, etc. Mitch: [0:30] Isi's ill, so she's spluttering in the background whilst I record the first ever Easy English solo podcast. But not to make it a negative, turn that frown upside down today. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that Isi's not with us to give you a podcast about one of my favourite hobbies. As a couple, it's nice to have shared hobbies, but it's also nice to have your own individual things and one of my individual things, which understandably, Isi doesn't want to partake in, is watching horror movies. I consider myself a horror movie aficionado. I'd like to think. There are some caveats to that, but today, I thought, I would try to make an inclusive podcast about horror movies, why you should be excited about horror movies, good horror movies to watch, horror movies to watch if you hate horror movies, if you're scared of horror movies. Okay, let's give it a go. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership