Luke's ENGLISH Podcast - Learn British English with Luke Thompson

James Harris is a writer, comedian, English teacher and language learner (French, German, Chinese) from England. In this funny chat, we talk about learning Chinese, being married to a Chinese woman and his semi-autobiographical book, "Midlands" which tells several funny and touching stories about two ex-pats living in Germany; Stuart, who is a stand-up comedian trying to understand the Germans, and Doug who gets involved in a love affair. James reads several passages from the book during the episode.👉 Get James' book ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ https://www.amazon.co.uk/Midlands-James-Harris/dp/B0B38CX11P👉 Sign up to James' email newsletter "Stiff Upper Quip" for regular short articles in English & more https://stiffupperquip.substack.com/👉 Follow James on Twitter https://twitter.com/JamesHarrisNow👉 Page for this episode on Luke's website https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sJr👉 Listen to James' first episode on LEP https://youtu.be/nppFuFyIBZU Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation about two legends of contemporary popular culture - Bob Dylan and John Lennon, with pop-star academic Jon Stewart (guitarist in The Wedding Present and Sleeper).👉 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sJE📖 Get Jon's book here https://a.co/d/fPBgTel (other bookshops are available)Jon Stewart is an interesting mix. He is both a university lecturer and a pop star. He runs a Masters Degree course in Music Business and Popular Music Practice at the BIMM Institute in London and he also plays guitar for legendary British group The Wedding Present, AND classic 'Britpop' band Sleeper. So, Jon knows all about the music business from both a personal and academic point of view. In this conversation I ask Jon about his new book "Dylan, Lennon, Marx and God" which is an amazing dual-biography of John Lennon and Bob Dylan, two of the most significant figures in contemporary popular culture. Jon talks about the way Dylan and Lennon used language in their work, the references they make to the culture they grew up in, including their spiritual and political views.Jon also talks about his time as a musician, including working with Elvis Costello and George Michael, and a funny story about John Lennon's "Imagine piano".I hope you find this conversation as fascinating as I did. If you like it, consider getting a copy of Jon's book! Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Santiago has a top job in the English teaching industry. He is the managing director of English teaching at Oxford University Press. But English is not his first language. He learned it as an adult when he moved to London in his twenties. This conversation explores how he progressed in his English learning and in his career, while dealing with daily challenges and failures in English. The conclusions are that motivation and positivity are vital, you have to keep going through the difficult times, and you can achieve great things in your career in English even if you're not perfect. This episode should be a boost for the confidence of all English learners! Keep an open mind, keep your eyes on the prize, keep going and your English WILL improve!Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sJx Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A rambling episode about making a fresh start in the new year, and some things I just have to tell you about listening to Luke's English Podcast using a podcast app on your phone + lots of tangents. I hope you enjoy it!Episode page on my website (with transcriptions, notes, video version etc) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sIV Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The third (and final) adventure in this series of mini-mysteries on LEP. Can I improve my detective skills to work out the disappearance of a priceless painting and a series of gruesome murders? Story by Peter Carlson and available on textadventures.co.uk👉 Episode page with links https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sJd👉 Play Victorian Detective Interlude by Peter123 yourself here https://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/abwfcm2vke6b6nbmqh2v1w/victorian-detective-interlude Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second in a trilogy of text adventure stories by Peter Carlson. In this one we are chasing a ghostly serial killer with a few tricks up his sleeve. Do I have the detective skills to solve the mystery and avoid certain death?  👉 Episode page on teacherluke.co.uk https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sJ7👉 Play "Victorian Detective Interlude" on textadventures.co.uk https://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/abwfcm2vke6b6nbmqh2v1w/victorian-detective-interlude Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Let's do another text adventure mystery story by Peter Carlson. Listen to me read the story and make choices to solve the mystery. You can read the story with me (link below) or do the game yourself later. This is the first in a series of 3 stories from Peter's "Victorian Detective Interlude" game on textadventures.co.ukEpisode page (including a message from Luke - "2022, A Year In Podcasting") https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sIaPlay "Victorian Detective Interlude" on textadventures.co.uk https://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/abwfcm2vke6b6nbmqh2v1w/victorian-detective-interlude Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen from the SEND7 Podcast asks Luke 20 quiz questions about international news stories from 2022. Do you know the answers? Can you beat Luke in the quiz? Listen for some serious moments, some funny moments and a re-cap of some key events from the year.Episode page on my website https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sCl Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A quick ramble about why this is the final part of episode 800, why there was a delay between part 2 and part 3, some comments about having flu, and about World Cup 2022.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sH4 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrating episode 800 by answering a massive list of questions from listeners. This episode covers things like how to improve your speaking when you live in a non-English speaking country, the headphones and microphone I use, my current favourite episode, the afterlife and spirit world, my favourite brands of tea, my favourite video games, being a father and the recent Star Wars series Andor and plenty plenty more. Video version available.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sA7 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Celebrating episode 800 and responding to lots of questions sent in on social media. Expect questions about my ill-fated music career, grammar, favourite authors, my daughter, life as an English teaching podcaster and plenty more. Video version available.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-siR Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke reads an extraordinary email from a listener in an sos situation in a hospital. Contains some disturbing descriptions of fear, anxiety and horror, but there's a happy ending!👉 Free ELSA app download link (download ELSA free & get 7 days pro membership free): https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/elsa👉 ELSA Discounts page - ELSA PRO (85% off lifetime & 40% off one year ELSA memberships): https://elsaspeak.com/inf/LukesEnglishPodcast/Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-shK Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A bonus mini-ramble about my plans for episode 800 (send me your questions) and why I haven't done any World Cup episodes yet, but you can listen to me talking about it with Zdenek on his podcast (link available).Website page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-stMCheck out my conversation with Zdenek about World Cup 2022 https://youtu.be/PZOOa-PVXcw Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In conversation with Mysterious Al, a contemporary artist / street artist from London now living in Melbourne, Australia. The conversation covers Al's background, how he makes his art, the difference between street art & graffiti, attitudes towards graffiti, how Al needs to use social media (but doesn't like it!) his recent ghost train exhibition, and more. Al's Instagram https://www.instagram.com/mysteriousal/ Al's website https://www.mysterious.al Video version also available.Episode page with video, and audio download https://wp.me/p4IuUx-sij Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Stephen from SEND7 podcast becomes the host to interview me about how I started LEP, the ins and outs of doing this, plus some advantages and challenges for podcasting to learners of English. Video version available.Episode page with audio download, video and links https://wp.me/p4IuUx-smy Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Special Guest Mark Steel joins me to discuss cultural and linguistic differences between the UK and France, plus accents in the UK and a little tour of some places in the UK that you don't know about. Also includes a discussion of swearing and rude language in Britain. What is the R word which you should never say in a specific part of the UK? Listen on to find out. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-s8I Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn English with a short story. In fact, this episode contains two stories. Listen until the end for the 2nd one.Repeat after me to practise your pronunciation. Learn some vocabulary & grammar in the second half of the episode, with an explanation of modal verbs of deduction in the past and present.Episode page to read/download the transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-scI Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Reading out loud can have lots of benefits on our memory and our mental health. How can it help with your English? In this episode I read an article, help you understand it and give comments on the importance of reading, both quietly in your head, and out loud. 📖 Read the article on the BBC Future website https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20200917-the-surprising-power-of-reading-aloud📄 Read the transcript and download the PDF transcript from my website (free) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-s8w✅ Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ to access the 3-part series about this episode, and more https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Last week a very special guest visited one of our comedy shows in Paris. I was given a ticket to the show, so I decided to record a podcast while riding through the streets on the way to the show, wondering if I might be able to interview this guest on LEP. Listen to find out what happened, and to hear some rambling and atmospheric sounds of Paris streets at night.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-s2m Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My dad returns to talk more about UK politics, this time describing the disastrous economic policy of Liz Truss and her Chancellor (finance minister) Kwasi Kwarteng. Advanced level English listening practice - this is complicated stuff, but keep listening to develop your English skills and learn about what's going on in UK politics and current affairs.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-s7GVideo version https://youtu.be/csrAYt0eNbc Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Amber and Paul join me in my pod room again for a rambling discussion about everything! Includes a language point about adjective + preposition collocations. Notice the phrases and try to find examples of them in context. Video version available.Episode page with some vocabulary notes, links, video version https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rY3 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My mum returns to the podcast to answer some questions from listeners about books, cooking, her relationship with Luke and her granddaughter, the war in Ukraine, the song Imagine by John Lennon, family games, the time she fell off a horse & more...Episode page with notes, links and scripts https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rTm Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 2 of 2] James and Luke discuss some more "facts" about the UK, but can you guess if they are true or false? Learn some interesting trivia about life in Britain, and improve your vocabulary in the process.Episode page with video version, all facts written + intro & ending transcripts https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rTT Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Part 1 of 2] Can you guess if these "facts" about the UK are true or false? James and Luke read out the facts and then discuss them one by one. Learn some odd things about the UK, pick up some vocabulary about laws and customs, and try not to laugh on the bus.Episode page with all facts written https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qI9 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to my parents about events in the UK following the death of The Queen on 9 September, including the media coverage, the proclamation of King Charles III, comments about Charles as King and a discussion of the role of the monarch in the UK’s constitution. Also includes some comments about the new Prime Minister Liz Truss and the future of the UK government over the next 18 months.Episode page (download the audio and check the full episode archive) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rOu Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Queen Elizabeth II died today. Here are my thoughts and feelings about the significance and symbolism of her life and death, recorded just an hour after I first saw the news.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rLA Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Fred Eyangoh returns to the podcast to bring some entertaining and useful word puzzles, quizzes and insights into English etymology & history.👉 Episode page with vocabulary notes and introduction transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rJr📼 YouTube video version (doesn't include intro or vocabulary summary) https://youtu.be/GmZlDQB8QWc Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Join us on a trip to a virtual pub for a couple of pints, a packet of crisps and some advice about how to go to the pub in English, with plenty of funny tangents, with Charlie Baxter. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rmQVideo version on YouTube https://youtu.be/Vg5n11RfrvY Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Comparing British and American English vocabulary with a fun online quiz. My guest today is American comedian Sarah Donnelly. Video version (of the conversation) available.Episode page with vocabulary notes & intro transcript 👉 https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rmLWatch the conversation on YouTube 👉 https://youtu.be/JZ8A8lDopkw Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul McCartney turned 80 this year, so let's talk about this legend of British music! In this one, I am joined by Sam Whiles, the host of the Paul or Nothing podcast. Listen to hear an overview of Paul's career, and some Paul McCartney stories. Episode page with introduction transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rmHWatch the conversation on YouTube https://youtu.be/fUZCqVm8d6g Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to Antony Rotunno about a classic British comedy film which makes fun of the legend of King Arthur (and everything else!) Originally published by Antony on his Film Gold podcast earlier this year.Episode page with links, video clips and more https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rmE Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

An unedited ramble in which I talk without a specific plan, includes a recording of my daughter speaking English, and a few songs on the guitar. Video version available.Episode page with song lyrics 👉 https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rn5Video version on YouTube 👉 https://youtu.be/r3dhUOnci7w Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Luke reads verses from a modernised version of this medieval poem, considered one of the masterpieces of Middle English literature. Listen to hear the rhyme and rhythm of the poetry, the descriptive vocabulary and details of the story, with vocabulary explanations and comments from Luke. This is part 2 of a double episode about this story. Video version available with on-screen text.Episode page with intro transcript & video version https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rj8 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation with my dad about a great medieval adventure story originally written in middle English and updated and translated into modern English by Simon Armitage. Dad talks about the origin of this story, its connection to the history of the English language, and the poetic devices used in the writing. In the second half I read a summarised version of the story and some verses from Armitage's modernised version.👉 Episode page with intro & ending scripts, story summary & more information https://wp.me/p4IuUx-rhs Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My dad talks about the latest news about Boris Johnson, who on Friday said the UK should now begin the process of finding a new Prime Minister. Why is Johnson going to step down? What scandals has he been involved in during his life? What might happen next? Listen to hear my dad's comments in plain English.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-r95 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A free sample of LEP Premium, from Luke's English Podcast. This is a full English lesson with self-study techniques, an entertaining story about a bear, language exercises and pronunciation practice. Full PDF transcript & worksheet available 👇LEP Premium is a series of bonus episodes from Luke's English Podcast in which I teach you vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation. LEP Premium is now available on Acast+. Episodes are usually in audio format, and you can listen to them in any normal podcast app.👉 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium👉 Click here for more information about LEP Premium on Acast+ https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo👉 Already subscribed to LEP Premium on Libsyn/LEP App? Click here for important information https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium/moving👉 Get the full PDF transcript/worksheet for this episode📄🎁 PDF in normal size https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-1_1-StoryTime_-Learn-English-with-Stories-free-LEP-Premium-Sample-THE-BEAR-STORY-COMPUTER-VERSION.pdf📄🎁 PDF with large text for your phone https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-1_1-StoryTime_-Learn-English-with-Stories-free-LEP-Premium-Sample-THE-BEAR-STORY-PHONE-VERSION.pdf📄🎁 PDF Bear Story Transcript https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-The-Bear-Story-Transcript-COMPUTER-VERSION.pdf📄🎁 PDF Bear Story Transcript for your phone https://teacherluke.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2022/07/P35-The-Bear-Story-Transcript-PHONE-VERSION.pdf📼 Video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/7Pk2wN8APes🔗 Episode page on my website https://wp.me/p4IuUx-r1P Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

*Update 24/06/2022 - problems are now fixed!*Episodes of LEP have disappeared from podcast apps like Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play - sorry about this! I'm changing podcast host, and my podcast feed is being updated. This is causing a few technical issues, but they are being fixed. Details below 👇I have moved to a new podcast host - one which is based in Europe and which just suits me much betterCool things are: You’ll be able to get LEP Premium much more easily - in your podcast app of choice (details on the website - coming soon)You can support the podcast a lot more easily, if you’d like to be a stakeholder in LEP. This is all part of my attempt (over 13 years!) to become a self-sufficient podcaster who can devote more time and energy to this project, and make episodes better and more useful and entertaining for youYou will notice some ads in episodes, depending on where you are. Not every time.Also you might hear me mentioning podcast sponsors at the start of episodes sometimes.Previously I used to have sponsors, but the pandemic stopped that, basically. I used to talk about italki, spoken, audible, but those things stopped fully during the coronavirus pandemic.But I have to find ways to keep the podcast going and so the new host I’m working with (Acast) gives the option to put some ads in my episodes and they might also let me read some sponsorship promos too.This is the way podcasts are going, as the technology develops and the medium becomes more established, little automatic adverts and sponsorships are part and parcel of that. This is how an industry develops around this sort of thing.Back when I started this in 2009 it just wasn’t possible because the technology wasn’t there but these days it’s normal to either have some advertising in the content or you have the option to pay for a subscription with more content and no ads. Just like YouTube, you get some ads on that platform and it’s just normal. Some people get YouTube premium to go ad-free and get all the music and stuff.Or Spotify - if you use the free version to listen to your music there are ads on that too, unless you pay for a subscription.So that’s what’s happening with LEP.It’s not going to make a huge difference to you, I have to say, but I thought I would at least mention it, just so I can be transparent. So here’s how it’s going to work.You’ll get all the free episodes as normal, and the whole episode archive will continue to be freely available as normal.You’ll probably hear a few ads sometimes. They’ll be short - certainly shorter than if I did them myself!If you want to remove those ads so you never hear them while listening to LEP you’ll also be able to sign up for ad-free episodes. That’ll cost about $2 per month. You’ll be supporting me too if you do that.You’ll be able to access LEP Premium episodes more easily than before, and it should be a system that you all should have access to (unlike with my original system which seems or seemed to block certain credit cards from different countries - the Acast system should accept all of you) and you’ll be able to get your premium content in your normal podcast app - not just through the LEP App. And if you become a premium subscriber, that will also remove all the ads. And you’ll be supporting me too.This way I can keep the archive free, but also reward people who support me by giving them my premium content which I always work hard to produce.For LEP Premium subscribers - keep an eye on your LEP subscription because I will be uploading an announcement about that too, and also some new premium content is in the pipeline. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

775. A Rambling Chat with James (June 2022) My brother James comes back onto the podcast for a conversation about the hot weather, tricky Wordpress updates, the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, Rock Music concert movies, Alan Partridge's live show, Irish/British relations and plenty more. 📖 Episode page with introduction transcript and other notes + videos https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qRz 🍺 🎶 Buy James and pint and listen to his music www.jimthompson.bandcamp.com Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to Luke reading a text adventure story set in a summer camp. You can read the story at the same time as you listen, or just relax and have fun following this action packed horror story, and read do text adventure later. Includes some vocabulary explanations, differences between British & American English and some very dodgy jokes. Video version available.Episode page (download the audio, find my other episodes) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qAQOpen the story in your browser http://play2.textadventures.co.uk/Play.aspx?id=lu8kzyzfp0wxpnqsdcpexq LEP T-shirts, mugs, etc https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

773. What do British people think about The Queen and The Royal Family? (with James)Luke and James discuss their feelings about the Royal Family, with some survey results about the popularity of royal family members among British people in general.Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qMp Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

772. Rambling in the Podcastle (June 2022) News / Thoughts / Reflections This is an unedited monologue in which I talk about some things which are on my mind at the moment, including how my hair is stopping me from learning French (and vice versa), virtuous and vicious circles, how English is like a shark (or a river - or maybe a shark in a river), some comments about recent episodes and a visit from a friendly bat at my podcastle. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qJQ  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch Image by FunkyFocus from Pixabay    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

771. Sick In Japan (Recorded Live at the BC) My story about how I ended up in a Japanese hospital bed, scared out of my brain. Recorded live in front of an audience at the British Council in Paris. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qC0  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-Shirts, Mugs & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

770. Boats & Murder (but mostly murder) with Moz An episode with my friend Moz from the Murder Mile True Crime Podcast. Moz returns to tell us some true stories of crimes in the London area. Expect some smalltalk about living on a boat, some murder stories and an interactive detective game in which we have to solve a murder. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qm6 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Luke's stand up comedy at the English Comedy Night in Paris https://www.panameartcafe.com/shop/stand_up/paname-english-comedy-night/  Murder Mile Podcast https://www.murdermiletours.com/podcast.html  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

769. Film Club: This Is Spinal Tap (with James) A return to Luke's Film Club with the classic comedy This Is Spinal Tap, a "mockumentary" about a fictitious rock band from the 1980s. This time I am joined by my brother James and we discuss what was once voted "Funniest comedy film of all time". Learn some famous quotes from the film, listen to some scenes and understand the comedy with help from James and me. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qwC Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

768. English Teaching Methodologies (with Gabriel Clark) Gabriel Clark from clarkandmiller.com joins me to discuss a short history of teaching methodology in the world of TEFL. The direct method, the grammar translation method, The Audio Lingual Method, the Structural Approach, Suggestopedia, Total Physical Response, Communicative Language Teaching (CLT), The Silent Way, Community Language Learning, Task Based Language Learning, The Lexical Approach and dogme style - all these get described and discussed. Learn how English teachers teach you English! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-quK My talk at the British Council https://www.britishcouncil.fr/evenements/talks-english-comedie  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch etc https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

767. Amber & Paul in the Podcastle Two hours of PodPal action for your enjoyment. This one has a bit of everything. Some audience questions, an idioms game, some dodgy jokes, accents, impressions and more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qre LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-shirts, mugs etc https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

766. Learning English with The News (with Stephen from SEND7 Podcast) Talking to Stephen from the Simple English News Daily podcast about learning English with the news and whether BBC reporters actually speak like normal humans. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qm3  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-shirts, mugs, etc https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

765. Travelling Stories / Reverse Culture Shock (with Martin Johnston from Rock n' Roll English) Martin joins Luke to talk about moving back to the UK, his fundraiser for Ukrainian refugees and some funny stories about travelling experiences. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qkq Martin's fundraiser www.rocknrollenglish.com/stories  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

764. 22 Funny Jokes, Explained Learn English with 22 funny jokes with explanations of vocabulary, homophones, double meanings and pronunciation. Video version available.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-qhy  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  British Council English Score Tutors https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/english  LEP T-Shirts, Mugs, etc https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

763. Rambling in the new Pod-Room / Choose The Adverb / Deal or No Deal This is a chance for me to just let loose and have a ramble while inviting you to this kind of housewarming party (or perhaps just the first part of the party) in my new pod-room. In this one I am going to welcome you into the new room and do a ramble challenge in which I am restricted to only talking about things inside the room, plus reading from some random books on my shelves. Grammar rules, adverbial collocations and a game show story. Private Lessons with British Council English Score Tutors https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/english Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-q9b  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch Rules of the Ramble Welcome everyone to the pod-room. Give a tour. I’m restricted to only talking about things inside the room. Maybe describe some of the items on the walls and pictures. Include some descriptive language. Pick up a book and do a random exercise from it. Keep talking without pausing or saying “errr”. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

762. Meditation & Learning English (with Antony Rotunno) Discussing meditation, meditation techniques, how it can help in our lives and improve us as language learners. Antony Rotunno is my guest and listen out for stories, advice, tangents and maybe one or two revelations. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-q99 Private Lessons https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/english LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-Shirts, Mugs & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch Luke & Antony discuss Monty Python & The Holy Grail https://youtu.be/YMtOOBpRBaA Antony's Meditation episodes from Life & Life Only https://lifeandlifeonly.podbean.com/e/episode-4-the-joys-and-wonders-of-meditation-part-1-of-2/ https://lifeandlifeonly.podbean.com/e/episode-5-the-joys-and-wonders-of-meditation-part-2-of-2/ Antony's Podcasts    Life & Life Only https://plinkhq.com/i/1549021296?to=page Glass Onion: On John Lennon https://plinkhq.com/i/1473867166?to=page  Film Gold https://plinkhq.com/i/1544641271?to=page    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

761. Why we love The Beatles (Recorded Live at The British Council) + Public Speaking Tips This is a presentation I did at the British Council in Paris recently, in front of a live audience. First I talk about public speaking and my approach to doing presentations and then you can hear the recording of my talk. The Beatles were a global phenomenon when they first appeared in the 1960s and their appeal continues to this day. The world still loves The Beatles. But why is this? Join me as I take a deeper look at the social, cultural and psychological factors that make The Beatles story so compelling even after all these years. Episode page with intro & ending transcripts https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pXd Private Lessons with British Council English Score Tutors https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/english LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

760. The Rick Thompson Report: Ukraine Talking to my dad about the situation in Ukraine on 28 February 2022. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pZ0  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

759. Life is what happens while you're busy making other plans Join me as I walk around my local streets in Paris, go to the laundrette and ramble about what's going on in LEPland at the moment and why there haven't been any new episodes for a while. Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2022/02/23/759-life-is-what-happens-when-youre-busy-making-other-plans/  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

758. Pub Quiz Trivia with Sarah The Paris Quiz Mistress Chatting to pub quiz host Sarah Toporoff about her love of trivia, and asking each other quiz questions about history, geography, literature, language & pop culture. Can you answer the questions and follow the conversation? Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pSp LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

757. Setting up my new Pod-Room / DIY (Do It Yourself) Vocabulary & Expressions Describing how I am setting up my new pod-room with a couple of stories and plenty of vocabulary for talking about DIY and doing improvements to your home. Vocabulary list available. Episode page with vocabulary list https://teacherluke.co.uk/2022/01/22/757-setting-up-my-new-pod-room-diy-do-it-yourself-vocabulary-expressions/  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

756. Learn English with LEP in 2022 / A New Year Ramble In this episode I’m going to wish you a Happy New Year, ramble a little bit about what’s going on in LEPland, restate some of my aims and objectives for this podcast, and give a few comments on how you can use the podcast to improve your English, with reference to some recommended episodes from the archive. Episode page with links and notes https://teacherluke.co.uk/2022/01/05/756-learn-english-with-lep-in-2022-a-new-year-ramble LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

755. FUNNY RUSSIAN CITIZENSHIP TEST with Amber & Paul Can Luke, Amber & Paul pass this funny Russian citizenship test which was written and sent in by a Russian LEPster? Join us as we attempt to answer questions which (apparently) every Russian person would know. This could be embarrassing! P.S. I am 99% sure that this really is the final episode of 2021. Episode page (download the audio & read the full citizenship test from Vadim) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pPY  LEP Premium (vocabulary, grammar & pronunciation lessons) https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-shirts & merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

754. Learning & Teaching English in The Metaverse / The Mandalorian (with Andy Johnson) Andy Johnson returns to talk about more “M” words - this time it’s The Metaverse and The Mandalorian. The Metaverse is an immersive and interactive 3D online environment. How can it be used for learning and teaching English? Andy’s new job is with a company that offers English learning in the metaverse, so let’s chat about it. Also, we finally talk about The Mandalorian on LEP after waiting nearly a year! This is probably the last episode of LEP in 2021 - so Merry Christmas everyone and I hope you have a Happy New Year! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pLR LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Fluent Worlds Academy (Learn English in The Metaverse) https://academy.fluentworlds.com/  LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

753. Visiting the Louvre Museum with Amber & Paul Join Amber, Paul and me as we take a tour of the famous Louvre Museum in Paris and describe some of the world's most amazing artwork and artefacts, including stunning Greek sculptures like Venus de Milo, fascinating renaissance paintings by Leonardo da Vinci such as the Mona Lisa and many more incredible pieces. The video version has photos of all the work being described. Photos are also shown on the website page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pLe LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo LEP T-Shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

752. Creating Award-Winning Books for Children (with Penny Dale) Author and illustrator Penny Dale talks about the process of creating successful books for children, including some of her most popular books such as Ten In The Bed and the Dinosaur series. Video version available. Audio version has 30mins extra rambling. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pJd LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP T-shirts & Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Penny Dale www.pennydale.co.uk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

751. Bath Arts Workshop: Counterculture in the 1970s (with Penny Dale) Chatting to English author & illustrator Penny Dale about her involvement in a counterculture arts movement from the 1970s, the Bath Arts Workshop. Episode page with vocabulary notes https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pIT LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  More information about BAW and the new book https://www.bathartsworkshop.org/ More about Penny Dale http://www.pennydale.co.uk/about.html  Credit for Phil Shepherd interview clip - Richard Wyatt www.bathnewseum.com  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

750. An Unedited Ramble / How to talk about Being Busy in English In this unedited episode I share some of the thoughts that have been running through my head, talk about being busy and look at some vocabulary to describe busy times in your life. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pIz LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

749. LEP DESIGN COMPETITION 2021: Discussing the Entries & Choosing the Winners with James James and Luke discuss designs sent in by listeners, and choose the winner(s). The prize: to have your design featured in the LEP Merch Store, plus an £80 reward! Listen for plenty of descriptive language, diplomatic language and ways of giving positive and feedback in English. Video version also available (with all the designs on screen) on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pFU LEP Merch store www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo James' music www.jimthompson.bandcamp.com James on YouTube https://www.youtube.com/user/VideoDaze EPISODE CONTENTS with time codes 00:00:00 Introduction 00:03:34 Hello James 00:10:31 Judging Criteria 00:11:20 English to look out for 00:12:05 1. Iwona - "We're gonna have a good time" 00:16:41 2. Kyoungjin - LEP Logo with Black Circle 00:20:57 3. Francisca - "Stop Rambling Luke!" 00:27:17 4. Silvia & Sara - LEP Ninjas / Gill's Book Club 00:37:49 5. Giuliana - Frog Ninja 00:41:19 6. Adel - LEPland / Luke Dissecting a Frog 00:44:28 7. Lenka - Ramblecast t-shirt 00:47:07 8. Evgeniya - LEPland Citizen 00:50:37 9. Alyona - Cryptic LEP logo / It's my cup of tea 00:55:44 10. Denis - Russian Joke 1:02:38 11. Jakub - A range of LEP designs 1:06:48 13. All4Band.com team - "A particular set of skills" 1:13:20 14. Sia - Prawn man, Luke and Batman 1:17:03 15. Andrey - LEP X-Ray 1:20:40 16. Max - Luke's head 1:23:42 17. Sofia - All calm in LEPland 1:25:33 18. Julia - Pink Gorilla says Nice One ;) 1:29:05 THE WINNERS 1:37:02 Ending Monologue (Hedging & diplomatic language, James' music) I couldn't post all the images here I'm afraid. But you can see them on YouTube (link above) or the episode page (link also above). 🎧 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

748. Karl Pilkington's 3-Minute Wonders / Manchester Accent [Part 2] Understand more of Karl Pilkington's rambling as we learn about the Manchester accent and pick up vocabulary along the way. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page with transcript & video https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pyE LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

747. Social Awkwardness / Very British Problems (with Michael Lavers from Level Up English) Talking to Michael Lavers from the Level Up English Podcast about learning Japanese, embarrassing moments in language learning, social awkwardness and some "very British problems". Are you as socially awkward as a British person? Let's see how you and Michael would respond to some quiz questions that will test your British awkwardness to the max. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pxs  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

746. Karl Pilkington's 3-Minute Wonders / Manchester Accent Understand English as it is spoken by native speakers. Let's listen to Karl Pilkington rambling about life, the universe & everything, and see what we can understand and learn. Karl is from Manchester, so we'll be looking at some features of his accent, picking up plenty of vocabulary and having a bit of a laugh along the way. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pwg  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

745. Mental Factors in Learning English (with Ray Addam) [English with Ray SwapCast] Talking to English teacher Ray Addam from Glasgow in Scotland about mental factors in learning English, such as anxiety, confidence, stress and motivation. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pve  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

744. The Rick Thompson Report: Fuel Crisis / Brexit Rant (Autumn 2021) Talking to my dad about the latest in the Brexit saga, including the current fuel crisis due to lack of lorry drivers and other problems which were predicted in the run up to the Brexit referendum in 2016. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pv0 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  LEP Merch https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

743. Give me Tea, Please - Practical Ingredients for Tasteful Language (with Natasha V Broodie) + ramble / song Talking to author Natasha V Broodie who has written a book which aims to help learners of English understand the subtle codes of polite language when making requests and giving information in professional and personal contexts. In the conversation we explore the topic and consider some tips for making your language more culturally appropriate. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pt3  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

742. NEW LEP T-SHIRTS & MERCH + LEP DESIGN COMPETITION 2021 with James New LEP Merchandise (t-shirts, mugs, etc) is now available at https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/merch And I am launching a design competition to give you a chance to get your design in the merch store and win £80. Listen to Luke & James describing the designs, the merch stores and the details of the competition. Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2021/09/22/742-new-lep-t-shirts-merch-lep-design-competition-2021-with-james/  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  👕 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

741. Top Jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2021, Explained Learn English from some jokes in this episode as we go through 9 jokes chosen as the best of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe stand up comedy scene this year (2021). Let me tell you the jokes, see if you understand them, and then I will break them down for language learning opportunities. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ppd LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

740. Are native English speakers bad communicators? (The Travel Adapter with Matt Halsdorff) Talking to English teacher Matt Halsdorff about a project to train native English speakers how to communicate better with non-natives. We talk about the reasons why native speakers are often bad at communicating with non-natives, what they should do to fix this and the wider issues relating to this topic. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ppi LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

739. The Escaped Man by CT Platt (Learn English with Short Stories) Reading a short story presented on Commaful.com. The Escaped Man is a mystery full of tension and intrigue. Listen closely as I break it all down and explain the vocabulary fully. YouTube video version also available. Episode page with transcript links https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pol LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Chatting to my family about some old anecdotes and stories from the past. Listen for some enjoyable chat, memories, descriptions and tales from days gone by. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-plu  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

737. A Summer Ramble 2 (Late August 2021) I'm back in the podcast-zone after my holiday so I thought I would do another rambling episode before getting down to work on other content to be released soon. Video version also available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pls  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

736. The War of the Worlds [Part 3] Learn English with Stories The final part of this series in which I am reading from the classic story The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells, while explaining and clarifying the English which comes up. Full transcript available and YouTube video version too. Episode page with YouTube version, full transcript and links to parts 1 & 2 https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oZB  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

735. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells [Part 2] Learn English with Stories Continuing to read extracts from this fantastic science fiction story from the 19th century. Follow the plot and pick up some English in the process. Full transcript available, and a YouTube version too. Episode page with full transcript, YouTube version and links for parts 1 & 3 https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oZl  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

734. The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells [Part 1] Learn English with Stories Luke reads extracts from The War of the Worlds by H.G. Wells. This is a classic bit of science fiction writing from the Victorian era, with some thrilling passages and scary descriptions. It's one of my favourite books of all time and I hope you enjoy it too and learn some English from it. Full transcript available and YouTube version too. Episode page with links for parts 2& 3, YouTube version and transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oZd  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

733. A Summer Ramble (Early August 2021) A pre-holiday ramble in which I talk about learning English, moving to a new flat, the podcast over the next few months, football, being on Other People's Podcasts, a recording of my daughter speaking English and a couple of songs. Video version also available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-peO  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

732. Christian from Canguro English returns Talking to Christian again about some of the themes and controversial opinions he talks about in his YouTube videos, plus some bits about men wearing thongs on the beach, an obsession with rabbits and if Christian was the Donald Trump of English teaching. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pb6 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

731. Beatles Song Lyrics / Idioms & Expressions (with Antony Rotunno) Learn English with The Beatles as we explore lyrics from Beatles songs and pick out some idioms, descriptive language and other vocabulary for you to learn. Featuring Antony Rotunno from the Glass Onion: On John Lennon podcast. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oYM  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

730. Marie Connolly Returns (+ 2 songs) Talking to author Marie Connolly about her new books for children, plus a story about how Jerry Seinfeld came to one of our comedy shows, with two songs on guitar at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-pb4 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Links for Marie's book https://books2read.com/Dudesgottasnowboard?fbclid=IwAR0AxrM9MubGXRUcDWvNd0VfuKDKQAInkyKrehmVQ_JWklucjIZoKceogVo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

729. TOEFL and the Duolingo English Test (with Josh MacPherson from TSTPrep.com) Talking to Josh MacPherson about tips and advice for taking TOEFL and the Duolingo English Test. YouTube version also available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oYm LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Josh's website https://www.tstprep.com  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS: [2/2] EURO2020 Swapcast with Martin Johnston (RnR) & Zdenek Lukas (ZEP) + COMPETITION WINNERS Part 2 of this swapcast about the UEFA Euro2020 football championship with Luke Thompson (Luke's English Podcast), Martin Johnston (Rock N' Roll English) and Zdenek Lukas (Zdenek's English Podcast), with details of the winners of our competition giveaway. The two semi finals have been played, and this coming Sunday the 11 July, it’s the final between Italy and England. We’re going to talk about that a bit and we’re going to reveal the winners of our giveaway competition. ⚽️ Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

728. English with Rob / Games, Music & Jingles My guest today is Rob from English with Rob (podcast/YouTube). Rob is an English teacher, musician from England, and my former colleague. This episode includes lots of musical fun, some chatting about how we make our podcasts, fun word games and much more. Video version also available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oYk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

727. Describing John Lennon / Adjectives of Personality J-Z (with Antony Rotunno) The second part of my conversation with Antony Rotunno (John Lennon podcaster, English teacher) in which we discuss adjectives of personality, with John Lennon as a case study. Vocabulary list available. Episode page with vocabulary list https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oYi LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Glass Onion: On John Lennon (Antony's Podcast) https://plinkhq.com/i/1473867166?to=page  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

726. Describing John Lennon / Adjectives of Personality A-I (with Antony Rotunno) Learn useful adjectives for describing personality traits, with John Lennon as a case study. This is episode 3/5 in my series about The Beatles, with returning guest Antony Rotunno from the podcast "Glass Onion: On John Lennon".  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oXK LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Antony's John Lennon podcast https://plinkhq.com/i/1473867166?to=page  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS:  [1/2] EURO2020 Swapcast with Martin Johnston (RnR) & Zdenek Lukas (ZEP) A fun chat about the UEFA Euro2020 Football Championship, with Luke Thompson (Luke's English Podcast), Martin Johnston (Rock N' Roll English) and Zdenek Lukas (Zdenek's English Podcast), with a special prize giveaway in which you can win prizes from all 3 of us. Non-football fans, feel free to skip this, of course! Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-p2M Video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/D1uq__bSbgg  Giveaway Competition details. Prizes to be won! To enter the giveaway competition just enter your email address using the Google form (link below). We'll randomly pick 3 email addresses. Those 3 people will be the winners, and each person will receive a prize from Martin, Zdenek and Luke. Deadline for entries: 12pm CET 6 July 2021. Google form to enter the competition https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeZ_R5SGjo-EVrUX9ke5tPehdJtBokCoMyzJRaAAPKbrfLd4Q/viewform  We will only use your email addresses for this competition, and not for any marketing or any other purpose. The prizes Martin's prize: Free access to the Rock & Roll English Family for 1 month. Zdenek's prize: Free entry to Zdenek's English through Role Plays course. Luke's prize: An LEP Mug, signed by Luke. Find out more details about Martin, Zdenek and their podcasts here https://wp.me/p4IuUx-p2M  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

725. Fun & Games for Learning English with Vickie Kelty Playing word games with English teacher Vickie Kelty and talking about how to use these games in learning and teaching English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oXq  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Vicky Kelty's Website https://www.vickiekelty.com/    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

BONUS: Unboxing my Shiny YouTube Award (Audio Version) Just the audio track for my YouTube live video in which I unboxed my nice shiny award for reaching 100,000 subscribers, with some audience questions and a song at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-p1C  Video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/KYm4KjB7F0E  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

724. The Mountain (Short Story) + Video Reading an emotional short story, with vocabulary explanations and differences between British and American English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oXm LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I'm unboxing my YouTube shiny thing on Thursday 10 June at 3PM Paris time (CET). Come and join me! Link here https://youtu.be/mYAYWs06HeI  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

723. Bahar from Iran 🇮🇷 (WISBOLEP Runner-Up) This is the final episode in the WISBOLEP competition series, speaking to Bahar from Iran about the 7-step method she used to improve her English and develop a British-sounding accent. Bahar used to be a terrible student who hated English, but then she made a decision to focus on her English in her own way. Listen to her explain how she did it. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oX1 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

722. Discussing John Lennon with Antony Rotunno The second in a short series about The Beatles, this one focuses on the life of John Lennon, with an overview of his life story, some thoughts about his psychology and some rambling discussion questions about this iconic British musician, with podcaster, English teacher and musician Antony Rotunno Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oY0 LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

721. Collins Dictionary Word Quizzes / Confusing Words with Fred Eyangoh This is the second part of my recent conversation with Fred Eyangoh about learning new vocabulary. This one includes a word quiz with homophones and commonly confused words from the Collins Dictionary website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oVJ LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

720. How Fred Learns Vocabulary with the New York Times Spelling Bee (with Fred Eyangoh) Fred often plays spelling games on his phone during his lunch break, and he has discovered lots of new words as a result. In this episode I talk to Fred about his process of discovering and understanding new words and I talk about learning vocabulary with online dictionaries. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oTV LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

719. Amber & Paul are on the Podcast Talking to pod-pals Amber & Paul about diverse topics including organ harvesting (yes), favourite fruits (exciting), accent challenges, guess the punchline, British Citizenship tests, What the "great" in Great Britain really means, and Amber's son Hugo's astonishing fluency in English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oTL LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

718. Michael the Shaman 🇵🇱 (WISBLOEP Runner-Up) Talking to competition runner-up Michael from Poland about two top English learning tips, scary hitch-hiking stories and the practice of shamanism using psychoactive substances. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oPQ LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

717. Gill's Book Club: "One Two Three Four - The Beatles In Time" by Craig Brown Talking to my mum about a book which you could read as part of your English learning routine. The book tells the story of The Beatles and their impact on society. We review the book and then discuss many aspects of The Beatles story, especially the four Beatles themselves. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oRi LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

716. Interview with a Pop Star from the 1960s - Megan Brady from The Applejacks An interview with Megan Brady, who was the bass guitar player in The Applejacks - a pop band from Birmingham in the 1960s who had a top 5 record, met The Beatles and performed on TV shows and at concerts in the UK.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oJn  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

715. Catching up with Craig Wealand [LEP/AIRC Swapcast] Exchanging questions with English teacher Craig Wealand from "Apprender Ingles con Resa y Craig" about COVID-19, living in Europe post-Brexit, my daughter's English, getting proper tea in France and Spain, teaching English on Zoom, the worst jobs we've ever had + more, with a song on the guitar at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oOG LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Apprender Ingles con Resa y Craig www.inglespodcast.com  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

714. Robin from Hamburg 🇩🇪 (WISBOLEP Runner-Up) Talking to another runner-up from last year's listener competition. Robin from Hamburg had a big setback in his learning of English, but worked hard to overcome it. We talk about his English learning trajectory, and ramble about German language & culture, his podcast for learners of German, podcasting microphones and then Robin teaches me some German words which are difficult to pronounce. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oNC LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

713. Lucky Dip with Paul Taylor More random questions, talking points, accent challenges and "guess the idiom" with pod-pal Paul Taylor. Includes discussion of accents in English, cancel culture in comedy, some rude Spanish phrases and more. Video version available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oLA  Video Version on YouTube https://youtu.be/3M47zI3PPho  Luke on Paul Taylor's Happy Hour (5 April 2021) https://youtu.be/msSIeSSLPRs  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

712. A Chat with Charlie Baxter Chatting with Charlie from The British English Podcast and Real English with Real Teachers on YouTube. We talk about the north/south divide in England, Charlie's background in psychology & NLP, his decision to become an online English teacher and his travelling experiences in Chile, Germany and Australia. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oJp  Video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/Lqcvk1ptXD0  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Links for The British English Podcast Website: http://thebritishenglishpodcast.com/ Podcast links: https://plinkhq.com/i/1533216336 Charlie's interview with me https://thebritishenglishpodcast.com/blog/s2-e4 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

711. William from France 🇫🇷 (WISBOLEP Runner-UP) William started learning English at 12 years old and continued at university and beyond, spending a couple of years in England as a teaching assistant and then returning to France to work as a school teacher, in some pretty tough classrooms and less-than-perfect teaching conditions. William talks about how he continues to maintain his English, the importance of finding good language exchange partners, and more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oJw  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

710. The Umbrella Man by Roald Dahl (Short Story) In this episode I read out a short story written by Roald Dahl and then comment on the style, language and plot. Enjoy some storytelling and learn some English in the process. Video version available. Episode page (with link for the PDF) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oFb  Video version on YouTube https://youtu.be/Fxm1vTW5jdg  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

709. The Stoicism of Groundhog Day (with Mum) This is a conversation with my mum about philosophy, how the film Groundhog Day can help us understand the principles of stoicism, and how this can all help us to feel a bit better about the world. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oDi  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  The Stoicism of Groundhog Day by Tim LeBon https://modernstoicism.com/the-stoicism-of-groundhog-dayby-tim-lebon/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

708. Tasha Liu from China (WISBOLEP Runner-Up) This conversation with competition runner-up Tasha Liu is a way to get to know Chinese culture in a personal way including the story of how Tasha's father gave up drinking alcohol, and other interesting details about real life in the world's most populated country. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oC7  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

707. [2/2] Let's Play Another Text Adventure Game - "Zombolocaust" by Peter Carlson [Part 2] Playing the rest of a text adventure game about the zombie apocalypse, with text on the screen so you can read with me while you listen. Works best on full-screen mode. Episode page with video & notes https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oBv  YouTube video version https://youtu.be/6SsQYURFdvo  Play "Zombolocaust" by Peter Carlson (play along while you listen, or play later) https://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/5kjlubyvzuitox6z52xipq/zombolocaust  Text Adventures website http://www.textadventures.co.uk  Luke's English Podcast website with full episode archive https://www.teacherluke.co.uk  Download Luke's English Podcast app to get all the episodes on your phone iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lukes-english-podcast-app/id1293261868?mt=8  Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teacherluke.android.english&hl=en  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  🎧 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

706. [1/2] Let's Play Another Text Adventure Game - "Zombolocaust" by Peter Carlson [Part 1] Playing a text adventure game about the zombie apocalypse, with text on the screen so you can read with me while you listen. Works best on full-screen mode. Episode page with video & notes https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oBr  YouTube video version https://youtu.be/YCPwEDlzmOo  Part 2 on YouTube https://youtu.be/6SsQYURFdvo  Play "Zombolocaust" by Peter Carlson (play along while you listen, or play later) https://textadventures.co.uk/games/view/5kjlubyvzuitox6z52xipq/zombolocaust  Text Adventures website http://www.textadventures.co.uk  Luke's English Podcast website with full episode archive https://www.teacherluke.co.uk  Download Luke's English Podcast app to get all the episodes on your phone iOS: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lukes-english-podcast-app/id1293261868?mt=8  Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teacherluke.android.english&hl=en  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  🎧 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

705. Kate Billington Returns (and she brought cake) Listen to another natural conversation with Kate Billington about some listener comments, Chinese New Year, English festivals & food in February, sports day traditions, more cake recipes, various bits of vocabulary and more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oAC LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

704. The Rick Thompson Report: Brexit Update (February 2021) Talking again to my dad about UK politics and current affairs, focusing on the latest developments in Brexit, plus a bit of weather and sport. Listen to hear my dad explain complex things in plain English. Download the audio, get the full transcript and access the full episode archive 👉 https://wp.me/p4IuUx-oxp LEP Premium 👉 https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Get the LEP App to listen to all the audio episodes on your phone. iOS 👉 https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/lukes-english-podcast-app/id1293261868?mt=8 Android 👉 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.teacherluke.android.english&hl=en Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

703. Walaa from Syria - WISBOLEP Competition Winner 🏆 Walaa Mouma from Syria has an amazing and inspiring story for all learners of English around the world, and some specific tips on how to improve your English long-term. Listen to this episode to hear all about it. Transcript and text video available. Episode page (download the transcript, download the mp3, comment section, etc) https://wp.me/p4IuUx-npA  Text Video Version on YouTube (Don't forget to like & subscribe of course) https://youtu.be/w9ythdvbKKM  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

702. Emergency Questions (with James) Listen to Luke and James talking about various topics as we answer questions from the book "Emergency Questions" by comedian Richard Herring. Text video and full transcript available. Episode page with full transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-l5P  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Text video coming soon here https://www.youtube.com/lukesenglishpodcast  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

701. Legal English with Louise Kulbicki Discussing some of the most important terms and concepts in legal English, while also learning about key cases through some amusing stories, with legal English trainer Louise Kulbicki. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-kKI LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Text video on YouTube (currently uploading here www.youtube.com/lukesenglishpodcast ) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

700. Marooned With My Music: Luke Thompson Marking episode 700 with a special episode. Guest host Oli Thompson interviews Luke using a classic format from BBC Radio. Luke is going to be marooned on a desert island but he is allowed to bring 8 pieces of music, one book and a luxury item. For episode 700 this is a chance to get to know Luke and his musical choices a little better. (Transcript and text video versions available) Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-klK  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Text video version on YouTube (currently uploading) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

699. Welcome (back) to Luke's English Podcast / FAQ (January 2021) Wishing everyone a happy new year and taking stock of the main aims and methods of this podcast, plus some frequently asked questions. Video version available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-jW0  YouTube video version https://youtu.be/b476zEQ1e7I  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

698. Paul is on the Podcast / Random Questions with Paul Taylor Paul Taylor joins me for some random questions and challenges, including various little discussion points, accents, citizenship test questions, idioms, jokes and more. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

697. 11 Christmas Cracker Jokes for 2020, Explained\ Going through 11 topical Christmas jokes for 2020, then a ramble about podcast statistics for 2020 and more... Merry Christmas everyone! Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

696. WISBOLEP Competition Results + RAMBLE Join me as I potter around my flat and give the results of the WISBOLEP competition then make a cup of tea and have a ramble about things like listening to non-native English speakers, reducing clutter in your home, renting vs owning a property, what it must be like to have only one hand, Zatoichi the blind swordsman, The Mandalorian TV series, Christmas plans and more. Includes a song on the guitar at the end. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

695. Pronunciation, Pragmatics & Procrastination with Emma Talking to Emma from YouTube channel Pronunciation with Emma about accents, improving your pronunciation, understanding pragmatics in English, and learning English through video games. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

694. The Crown / The Royal Family (A Royal Ramble with My Wife) Talking to my wife about the latest season of the Netflix TV drama The Crown, which follows the life and times of Queen Elizabeth II and her family. We talk about Charles & Diana, Margaret Thatcher, The Queen's accent, Prince Andrew's BBC interview and more. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

693. English With Lucy / A Conversation with Lucy Earl Chatting to Lucy Earl from the English with Lucy channel on YouTube. View the video on YouTube https://youtu.be/OUtpjZEIXr8  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

692. WISBOLEP Competition Entries - Listen & Vote! Listen to recordings sent in by listeners and vote for who you think should be on LEP. Listen to the 16 competition entries again [YouTube] https://youtu.be/8rKRcVzo-w0  Listen to the other 85 LEPsters who are still worthy of your attention, with sumptuous video footage of the UK and other locations [YouTube] https://youtu.be/rsBttoN1UHA  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

691. Jerome Butler - Dialect Coach How do professional actors change the way they speak for different acting roles? What can learners of English take from the way actors do this, in order to apply it to their language learning? In this conversation I speak to Jerome Butler who is a very experienced dialect coach working in the TV and film industry in the USA, and we discuss these questions. Photo by Alison Cohen Rosa https://www.alisoncohenrosa.com/    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

690. Urban vs Rural / Living Abroad / Cultural Differences (with Cara Leopold) A conversation with Cara Leopold about the differences between life in Paris and life in provincial France, plus how it feels to live abroad away from your home country. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

689. Baking Cakes, Telling Jokes & Speaking Chinese with Kate Billington A funny chat with Kate who speaks multiple languages, makes delicious cakes, teaches English and does stand-up comedy. Enjoy! Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

689. Sean Connery I recorded an episode about Sean Connery, who died yesterday. I didn’t expect to get emotional, but I did. Here it is. Hope you like it. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

687. WISBOLEP Problem / Polite Requests / An Inspiring Email / Fly Me To the Moon A rambling episode with some news about a problem I have with the WISBOLEP competition (ooh!), some tips on making polite requests, an inspiring email from a LEPster and a song on guitar at the end. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

686. Christian from Canguro English A conversation with YouTube English teacher Christian Saunders from Canguro English about the realities of learning and teaching English, motivation and goal-setting in language learning, Paul McCartney recording an album in his kitchen and plenty more. Video version also available on YouTube. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

685. Raising Bilingual Children [1] Alex and his daughter Alice, in Moscow An episode exploring the subject of how to raise a child to speak English. I speak to Alex, an English teacher from Moscow about how he has been speaking exclusively in English to his 4-year-old daughter Alice since she was born. Let's find out how it's going. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-hdK LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

684. Chasing the Tangent Train with Elspeth Graty A conversation with English-teaching stand-up comedian Elspeth Graty, which covers lots of different topics including Elspeth's background in England, teaching English, cultural differences, "French-bashing", old-fashioned telephones and The Tellytubbies. Enjoy! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-h0M  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

683. Feelgood Stories of Flirting with Marie Connolly Marie Connolly is an Australian stand-up comedian and TEFL teacher who has written a book of short stories about times when men (from various countries) have flirted with her. In this episode Marie shares some of those stories, tells us about English men vs French men vs Australian men and much more. Episode page with transcripts and vocabulary list https://wp.me/p4IuUx-gNR LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

682. Key Features of English Accents, Explained Exploring the main differences between standard English pronunciation (RP) and non-standard regional or colloquial accents. How do people really speak in different parts of England, and how does this accent differ from the accent you probably hear in English language course books and dictionaries? Notes & videos available on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-gkM  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

681. New Competition: Why I Should Be On LEP (WISBOLEP) / Story: The First Time I Said F*ck Announcing a new LEP competition which everyone is welcome to enter, plus an anecdote about the first time I said a rude word in front of my parents. Send your competition entries to podcastcomp@gmail.com  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-g1m LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

680. Park Life - A Year in The Wildlife Of An Urban Park (by Rick Thompson) / Animal Collective Nouns My dad has written a book and it's all about the wildlife you can find in an urban English park. He's on the podcast to tell us all about it, and there are some collective nouns for animals too, plus some bonus stand up comedy at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-fPp  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

679. Gill's Book Club: A Gentleman In Moscow Talking to my mum about her latest book recommendation. A Gentleman In Moscow is about a Russian Count who is put under house arrest in 1922 in the beautiful Metropol Hotel in Moscow.  Check the episode page for some notes and transcripts. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ftr  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

678. The Vintage Furniture Trade in London (with Howard Roach) Talking to my old teaching colleague Howard Roach about his furniture business in South London. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-fkL LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

677. A Post-Holiday Ramble / Holiday Vocab / Stories I've come back from my holiday so it's time to ramble on about some holiday stories, holiday vocabulary, podcast stats and other bits and pieces including an appearance by my daughter. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-eZ2  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

676. David Crystal: Let's Talk - How English Conversation Works Professor David Crystal returns to talk about his latest books, and more. The first book is all about the art of conversation in English, and the second one is a spy thriller inspired by real events. David Crystal is one of the world's leading linguists and an expert on the English language. He is also a national treasure and it's a treat to be able to talk to him in this episode. Video version also available on YouTube. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-cEY  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  YouTube version https://youtu.be/-YZiWvdQ76Q Let’s Talk - How English Conversation Works (OUP) by David Crystal https://global.oup.com/academic/product/lets-talk-9780198850694?cc=fr〈=en& The Encyclopedia Codes by David Crystal https://www.amazon.com/Encyclopedia-Codes-David-Crystal-ebook/dp/B08DDL8N3C/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=david+crystal+the+encyclopedia+codes&qid=1596307248&sr=8-1 Sign up to LEP Premium to improve your vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Previous Episodes with David Crystal Episode 454 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2017/05/31/454-david-crystal-interview-part-1-professor-of-linguistics/ Episode 455 https://teacherluke.co.uk/2017/06/06/455-david-crystal-interview-part-2-questions-from-listeners/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

675. An Unplanned Pre-Holiday Ramble (July 2020) This episode is unedited and contains all my pauses, mistakes and thoughts while I attempt to talk about what’s coming up on LEP, my recent appearances on other people’s podcasts, comments and emails of the week and a couple of songs on the guitar. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bYP  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo Links to my appearances on other people's podcasts The Real English Conversations podcast with Amy Whitney https://realenglishconversations.com/english-lessons-learning-tips/  Instant Feedback podcast with Markus Keeley https://instant-feedback.pinecast.co/episode/ffccfed122c9438c/32-luke-thompson Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

674. 19 Amusing Insurance Claims / Car Crash Vocab Listen to some funny extracts from genuine insurance claims and learn some vocabulary to describe car crashes and driving (badly). Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-boa LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

673. Conspiracies / UFOs / Life Hacks (with James) Talking to my brother about some click-bait topics, with stories, beliefs and a few celebrity impressions. Links, transcripts and videos available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bqb LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

672. The Rick Thompson Report: COVID / BREXIT / BLM (July 2020) Talking to my dad about recent developments in the UK relating to coronavirus & Brexit with a cameo appearance by Gill Thompson talking about statues. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bpr LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

671. Aussie English with Pete Smissen A conversation with genuine Aussie Pete Smissen, about differences and similarities between the UK and Australia, cultural and historical details, language similarities, and more. Check YouTube for the video version. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bmv  YouTube video version https://youtu.be/yHFo9PaJQLQ  Luke's interview on Aussie English https://youtu.be/q3bj7Cey5ns  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

670. Language Learning with James Harris Talking to writer and comedian James Harris about life as a writer, going to Oxford Uni, being an international Brit and learning German, French and Chinese as an adult. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bkc LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

669. How to Learn English Giving you as advice about learning English across the four skills of reading, listening, writing and speaking. Full transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-blK LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

668. LEP LIVE! Ask Me Anything / Hang Out With Luke (AUDIO VERSION) Listen to the audio version of the recent LEP Live Stream on YouTube including an audience Q&A, learning English tips, some crap 'Dad Jokes' and 3 songs on the guitar. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bkd Watch the video on YouTube https://youtu.be/QZTm-a4S4C0  LEP Premium info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

667. Four Way Call (with Alex, Moz & Paul) A lockdown Zoom call with my friends Alex, Paul and Moz which should be a fun but challenging listening exercise. Intro & ending transcripts available. Jump to 00:22:00 to skip the intro (at your own risk)  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bj2 YouTube Live Stream Weds 10 June 3PM CET https://youtu.be/QZTm-a4S4C0 LEP Premium info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Moz's Murder Mile True Crime Podcast https://www.murdermiletours.com/podcast.html Murder Mile Tours https://www.murdermiletours.com/   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Announcement: I’m doing a YouTube Live Stream on Wednesday 10 June at 3PM CET. Topic: Ask Me Anything / Hang Out with Luke YouTube link: https://youtu.be/QZTm-a4S4C0 Episode page for this announcement https://wp.me/p4IuUx-biw Last Wednesday's unplanned YouTube live stream https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UyX7y7RqCXc&feature=youtu.be LEP Premium info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

666. [Part 3] Favourite Scary Films (with James) James and Luke talk about some of their favourite scary films, and more. This is the 3rd and final part of episode 666. Bonus audio available in the LEP App and on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bgp LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

666. [Part 2] Frightening Experiences (with James) James and I share some stories of genuinely scary and disturbing experiences which we've had in our lives. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bfK LEP Premium info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

666. [Part 1] The Number of the Beast / Scary Music / Black Sabbath (with James) Talking to my brother James about the significance of the number 666, and then some scary music including 'The Devil's Interval', Black Sabbath and more... Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bdG LEP Premium info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Kate Arnold's music https://katearnolduk.bandcamp.com/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

665. A Chinwag with Sebastian Marx / 18+ British slang phrases that Americans don’t understand Chatting to Sebastian Marx from New York and testing his knowledge of British English slang phrases. Slang vocabulary list available on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-bdi LEP Premium Info https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premiuminfo    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

664. Lockdown Ramble with My Wife Chatting with my wife late one evening last week about what it's like to be with an English guy, raising our daughter to be bilingual and more... Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-baB LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

663. The Lockdown Lying Game with Amber & Paul Listen to three more stories told by Amber, Paul and Luke - can you guess if they are true or lies? Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-b7K LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

662. Catching Up with Amber & Paul #10 (Surviving Lockdown with Kids) Chatting to Amber Minogue & Paul Taylor about dealing with confinement at home with children, the birth of Amber's baby, tongue twisters, weird children's TV series and more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-b7i LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Free 30 day trial with Audible + one free audiobook of your choice www.audibletrial.com/teacherluke  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

660. Using TV Series & Films to Improve Your English Lots of practical advice and comments about how you can use films and TV series to work on your English. This episode is a recap of some advice in episode 523 with Cara Leopold. Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-b2u italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

659. Lockdown Chat with Cara Leopold Chatting to Cara Leopold about living in self isolation, the global coronavirus lockdown and how you can work on your English at home using TV shows and films. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-b0g  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  italki offer (buy some talking time with a teacher and get a voucher worth a free lesson) https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

658. [2/2] Why do Brits sing with American accents? This is part 2 of a double episode exploring the question of why British people often change their accent when they sing. This episode contains more examples, including some (dodgy) singing from me in order to hear how it sounds when different songs are sung in different accents. Notes, lyrics and transcriptions available on the page below. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aYO  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

657. [1/2] Why do Brits sing with American accents? Have you ever wondered why British people sometimes change their accent when they sing? This episode explores the question of why this happens, with various examples and some (dodgy) singing by me. Notes, videos and transcripts available on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aWM  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

656. British Comedy: Karl Pilkington’s Monkey News / The Ricky Gervais Show Listen to a funny story told in a Manchester accent, and learn various bits of English in the process including vocabulary and pronunciation. Improve your understanding of regional British accents. Story transcript & vocabulary notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aW3 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

655. Coping with Isolation / Describing Feelings and Emotions - Vocabulary & Experiences A vocabulary episode with lots of phrases for describing the experience of living in self-isolation. It also includes a bit of a ramble about the situation in the UK, my personal experiences of living in Paris during the lockdown and a song at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aUg  italki offer for one-to-one lessons https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

654. Computer-based IELTS / The First Time… (with Jessica Beck from IELTS Energy Podcast) A chat with Jessica Beck from the IELTS Energy Podcast about the new computer-based IELTS test, plus some funny stories about doing things for the first time, motivation in language learning, dealing with the stress of public speaking and seeing "The Fonz" on a ski slope. Get a $50 discount on Jessica's new IELTS online course by going to www.teacherluke.co.uk/3keys Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aTf    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

653. Gill’s Book Club “The Five: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper” by Hallie Rubenhold / How to read books to improve your English Talking to my mum about a good book she read recently; a social history about 5 women who were all murdered by Jack The Ripper in 1888. Also includes some advice and comments about reading books to learn English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aRg italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

652. The Rick Thompson Report: Coronavirus (COVID-19) Talking to my dad about what’s happening in the UK at the moment, how serious this pandemic is, what the consequences might be and how the UK’s government is responding to it. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aRI  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

651. Coronavirus (COVID-19) Vocabulary Explaining key vocabulary about the coronavirus (COVID-19) to help you talk about this global pandemic in English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aR2  Vocabulary List from EnglishClub.com https://www.englishclub.com/vocabulary/coronavirus-covid19.php Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

650. British Music: Jungle (with James) An in-depth episode all about an innovative British form of dance music from the 90s: Jungle (aka Drum & Bass). Includes discussion with James about the origins of the music, how it sounds, its position in UK culture, some bits of music on vinyl and a few anecdotes too. Notes & music playlists available on the website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aIz italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

649. An Unedited Ramble (March 2020) Never Explain, Never Apologise? / No Stress / Method To The Madness / 3 Songs on Guitar Luke talks on his own without stopping, restarting or editing, including responses to comments about recent episodes, thoughts on the methodology behind this podcast, some vocabulary teaching, a few songs on the guitar and more. This is no-stress episode, and a chance for me to just check in on you and make sure you're all doing ok out there in the world! 😉 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aP1 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

648. Ian Moore Returns Talking again to comedian Ian Moore about favourite films, a trip to New York, British & American audiences, how to iron a shirt, and funny stories about taking the language test to qualify for French citizenship. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aH7  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

647. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 6) The final part in this little series following Alan Partridge through a day in his life, and breaking it down for language. Alan is not for everyone, but I hope you've enjoyed this series and learned some English from it. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aH5  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

646. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 5) What did Alan do on Valentine's Day? Listen to find out, as we break down some more clips of this award-winning comedy and use them to learn English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aH3  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

645. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 4) Listening to some more classic British comedy and dissecting it for language. This time we're listening to some more clips of Alan Partridge, a comedy character played by Steve Coogan. This is part 4 of a series I started in 2018. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aGc  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

644. The Rick Thompson Report: Is Brexit Done? Talking to my dad about the latest in the Brexit saga including the general election result, Brexit day on 31 January 2020 and the latest government shenanigans by PM Boris Johnson and co. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aIa  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

643. The Intercultural Communication Dance with Sherwood Fleming Talking to Sherwood Fleming, author of "Dance of Opinions" about intercultural communication, including common problems and the solutions to help us learn to communicate more effectively across cultures. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aHl italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

642. The Lying Game Returns (with Amber & Paul) This should make you laugh out loud on the bus - it's the return of the Lying Game with Amber & Paul. Listen to our 3 stories. Do you think they are true, or lies? Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-azw  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

641. Catching Up with Amber & Paul #9 The pod-pals are back on the podcast and it's time for the usual catching up session in which we talk about how very-pregnant Amber has moved to the suburbs of Paris, the difference between a terrace, veranda, porch and conservatory, the difference between a cave and a basement, Paul's showbiz news, the ongoing joys and struggles of parenthood, the strikes in France, raising bilingual children and more. P20 parts 4 & 5 will be released next week. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aB9 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

640. IELTS Speaking Success with Keith O’Hare Talking to IELTS speaking coach Keith O'Hare about how to get your best score in the IELTS speaking test, plus some chat about the right approach to learning English. Luke takes the IELTS Speaking Test (YouTube) https://youtu.be/9Sp-_Uj6gUM  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ayz italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

639. 3 Quintessentially British Books (that you might not know about) with Mum Talking to my mum about some examples of quintessentially British things, in this case it's 3 British books that she particularly likes. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ax8 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

638. 3 Quintessentially British Things (that you might not know about) with Dad Dad picks his 3 British things to talk about in this episode which covers things like ancient history, British northern landscapes and the canal system which built the industrial revolution and changed Britain forever. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aw5 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

637. 5 Quintessentially English Things (that you might not know about) with James Talking with James about 5 typically English things, including conversation about pop culture, writers, TV shows, British humour and more... Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-avN  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

636. James & Luke Discuss Star Wars IX (SPOILERS) Final Star Wars Episode Ever? James and Luke ramble about Star Wars IX one more time. This episode is full of little jokes, sketches, voices and full spoilers for The Rise of Skywalker. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-avd  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

635. A New Year Ramble for 2020 (Part 2) Motivation / New Year’s Rules / Bilingual Daughter / Neil Innes Luke rambles some more at the start of 2020 about new year's resolutions, holiday stories, raising his daughter to be bilingual and a tribute to Neil Innes (with a song or two). Notes available below. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aun italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

634. A New Year Ramble for 2020 (Part 1) Pod Stats / Welcome to LEP / Travelling with a Toddler Luke wishes you a Happy New year and rambles about recent podcast statistics, new year in the UK, welcoming new listeners to the podcast, and some stories about travelling to the UK with a toddler by plane. Transcript available below. Episode page with transcript https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aun italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

633. Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker (SPOILER REVIEW) I've seen The Rise of Skywalker - here are my comments and thoughts. Please be aware that this episode is full of SPOILERS! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ap9  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

632. Star Wars IX: The Rise of Skywalker (No Spoilers!) A new Film Club episode in which Luke does a spoiler-free ramble about Star Wars IX, including various speculations and theories. NO SPOILERS. Transcript/Notes available below.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aoV italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

631. 29 Awful Christmas Jokes, Explained The annual Christmas episode of LEP is here! Explaining 29 truly awful jokes that you might get in a Christmas cracker this year. Enjoy! Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-anA  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

630. The English Guy with a Sitcom on Japanese TV (with BJ Fox) A conversation with English comedian BJ Fox, who performs stand-up in Japan and has his own TV show on NHK. Our conversation includes the story of how BJ managed to pitch the show to Japanese producers, how he learnt Japanese to a proficient level, doing stand-up in a different culture and much more. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-anu italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

629. Do you ever ... ? (with James) Strange Habits & Funny Observations A funny conversation about strange habits that we don't often talk about, with my brother James. Notes & scripts available on the website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-akj italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

628. OASIS (with James) A conversation with James about the English rock band Oasis, including details about their story, music, lyrics and the sibling rivalry between Noel and Liam Gallagher. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ajt italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Image: Champagne Supernova by Oasis, record cover. Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Champagne_Supernova_sleeve_cover.jpg Fair use summary: Content is for educational purposes and the image represents the subject matter of the episode.  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

627. Emina's Long Journey to English Proficiency My friend Emina Tuzovic has learned English to a proficient level as a non-native speaker of the language. She says it has been "a long journey". Let's find out all about that journey of English learning in this conversation, recorded in London just a couple of days ago. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ajY italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

626. The Rick Thompson Report: Boris Johnson's Brexit Deal / General Election / Football An update from my dad about Brexit, including details about Boris Johnson's deal, the shutting down of Parliament, the upcoming general election and more. Includes some chat about Premiership football at the end. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ajb italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

625. 88 English expressions that will confuse everyone (Part 2) Let's continue going through this list of words from an article I found in The Independent. Here is another list of 30 items of British English slang. Word list, notes and links available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aix italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

624. 88 English expressions that will confuse everyone (Part 1) An episode about British English slang and culture, featuring expressions that Brits know but everyone else finds confusing. Here are the first 30 expressions in a list of 88 that I found on independent.co.uk. Includes plenty of funny improvised examples to make you laugh out loud on the bus. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-ahL italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

623. 13 Terrible Jokes, Explained Actually, it's 17 jokes, including some simple one-liners and a few longer story-based jokes for you to remember and practise telling yourself. Listen to Luke read out and explain some pretty awful but enjoyable word puns and shaggy dog stories, and learn some English in the process. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-agc italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

622. General Ramble (Oct 2019) Learning English / Politics / Recording Setup / Book Recommendation / Beatles / Star Wars / Bill Bailey Rambling on my own about all sorts of things including Brexit news, describing my recording setup and microphones, a book recommendation for you, comments about the Beatles Abbey Road 50th Anniversary, the latest Star Wars Episode 9 trailer and Bill Bailey dissecting music in a brilliant way. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-aeX italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

621. British TV: Dragons’ Den (Part 3) Discord in the Den One more episode about this TV series involving entrepreneurs getting investment for their business startups. In this one there's plenty of disagreement and some strong feedback from the Dragons. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-adX  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

620. British TV: Dragons' Den (Part 2) Negotiation Listen to a real business negotiation and learn loads of English in the process. Vocabulary, scripts and notes available below. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-adk  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

619. British TV: Dragons’ Den (Part 1) Business Vocabulary Learn tons of business vocabulary in context in this episode all about a TV show about entrepreneurs negotiating investment for their business startups.  This episode contains a business ramble about things like equity investments, financial projections, manufacturing, distribution, logistics chains and marketing. Part 2 contains a real negotiation with plenty of emotional moments. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-acI  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

618. The Climate Crisis Explained in 10 Charts (with Cara Leopold) A conversation with Cara Leopold about the climate crisis including descriptions of key charts, graphs and data. Notes and transcripts available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a8R  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

617. Sales and Advertising (with Paul Taylor) A language-focused episode looking at words and phrases that you often see and hear in advertising and sales situations. Also includes discussion of sales techniques, Apple's sales and marketing strategy and also a classic bit of stand-up by the late great George Carlin. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a7R  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

616. Can you find the 15 idioms? (with Paul Taylor) Listen to Luke and Paul play a conversation game and try to spot 15 common idioms. All idioms are demonstrated, explained and listed on the website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a7C italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

615. Paul Taylor Became a Dad, and you won't believe what happened next How is Paul getting on as a new dad? How is everything going? What's he angry about this time? Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a7G  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

614. Another Murder Mystery Detective Story (Part 3) Here's the conclusion of this online murder mystery text adventure game. Vocabulary is reviewed at the end. Video available for premium subscribers. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a4K italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

613. Another Murder Mystery Detective Story (Part 2) Here is part 2 of this text adventure game. There's also a video for premium subscribers.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a4G  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

612. Another Murder Mystery Detective Story (Part 1) Listen to Luke investigating a 'choose-your-own-adventure' detective story and read along if you like! Learn English in fun ways with stories on Luke's English Podcast. Video available for premium subscribers. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a3W  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

611. Top 10 Jokes from Edinburgh Fringe 2019 Listen to 10 jokes from this year's Edinburgh Festival Fringe comedy shows. Understand the jokes and listen to Luke break them down to help you learn more English. Video version available in the LEP App for Premium subscribers. LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a3e italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

610. British Comedy: James Acaster Listen to a bit of stand up comedy that will require quite a lot of breaking down in order for you to understand all the jokes like a native speaker, but there’s lots to learn in the way of language and culture in the process. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a24 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium LEP App https://teacherluke.co.uk/how-to-download/get-the-lep-app/ Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

609. The LEP MeetUp in London / Brexit / Talking to my Daughter Here's an end-of-summer ramble, including details of what happened at the LEP meetup in London in July and some recordings of LEPsters who attended the event. There's also talk of Brexit and some interviews with my daughter who is beginning to speak.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-a1h  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

608. The Mass Observation (with Mum) Listen to my mum talk about a social history project focusing on the lives of everyday people in the UK. Includes discussion of things like protests, plastic, identity, sex education, loneliness, and milk! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9XW italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

607. The Rick Thompson Report: Boris Johnson PM / No Deal Brexit? Talking to my dad again about Brexit, this time including our thoughts on Boris Johnson as the new Prime Minister and the possibility of the UK leaving the EU without a deal on 31 October. Episode page with transcripts https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9Ww italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

606. The English Seaside (with James) Explaining and describing the culture of the English seaside experience, with James. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9T6  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  I'm coming to the LEPster meetup on Sunday 28 July 2019. See you there? Where? The Fitzroy Tavern near Oxford Street & Tottenham Court Road. Full address is 16 Charlotte Street, London W1T 2LY. Put the postcode into your google maps app (or equivalent) and it should direct you there. When - 2PM on Sunday 28 July (that’s this coming Sunday) The host is Zdenek Lukas - you’ll recognise him in the pub because he will be the guy with the board games. If you’re coming please just send Zdenek an email to let him know you’ll be there so he has an idea of how many people to expect. teacherzdenek@gmail.com Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

605. Unexpected Road Trip (with James) James and Luke go on an accidental road trip in the south west of England and record a rambling podcast, while slowly going a bit mad. Will they make it to their destination before sunset? Listen to find out what happens and to learn some words and culture in the process. LEPSTER MEETUP IN LONDON (details) Where? The Fitzroy Tavern, 16 Charlotte St, Fitzrovia, London W1T 2LY (near Oxford Street/Tottenham Court Road) When? Sunday 28 July 2019 from 2PM (and probably continuing into the afternoon) Who? English teacher Zdenek Lukas is the host and all LEPsters (and non-LEPsters) are welcome! Also, Luke might be there with his brother and friends. Email teacherzdenek@gmail.com to let him know you're coming. Come to chat, meet people, play board games in English and have fun! Episode page with photos https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9RM  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

604. London Native Speaker Interviews REVISITED Part 2 Listening to the audio from another old YouTube video of mine, and then exploring it for new vocabulary and English learning opportunities. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9OC italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

603. Queen / Freddie Mercury / Bohemian Rhapsody (with Alex Love) Talking to Queen fan Alex Love about this classic British rock band, their legendary singer Freddie Mercury and what Alex thought of the recent film Bohemian Rhapsody. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9Nu  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

602. British Comedy: The Day Today (Part 2) The Day Today is an award-winning parody of news and current affairs TV programmes. Let's listen to some more clips, understand the humour and learn some English in the process. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9My italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

601. British Comedy: The Day Today (Part 1) Let's investigate a brilliant British comedy TV show and use it to learn English. The Day Today was originally broadcast on the BBC in the mid-90s and is now considered a groundbreaking parody of news programmes and launched the careers of various comedians, including Steve Coogan. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9LX Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep :) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Quick Hello / OPP / Living Through Comedy / Somewhere Else Dreamin’ Just a quick "hello" to let you know about some other things you could listen to this month, including my appearances on some other people's podcasts. Transcript & Links Hello folks, how are you doing? How’s your English coming along? This is not a full episode, more of an update and a chance to tell you about some things you could listen to, specifically a couple of appearances I made on other people’s podcasts recently. I’ve been preparing lots of premium episodes for this month. I’m halfway through series 13. Parts 1 and 2 of this series have been published and they deal with lots of expressions with prepositions, specifically prepositions of place and movement combined with little verbs like get. As usual there are tests and pronunciation drills. Parts 3 and 4 will arrive this week. If you want to hear all the premium stuff, get the LEP App from the app store then go to www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium to sign up and get started, use your details to sign into the app to access the premium content. PDF worksheets are all available too. Other People’s Podcasts Now then, if you’re looking for stuff to listen to other than the podcast episodes in the archive and the premium content, here are a couple of things you could listen to in the meantime. Here are my recent appearances on other people’s podcasts. 1. I was interviewed on my brother’s podcast. It’s called Living Through Comedy and it’s all about my time as a comedian, including how I got into stand up, what my influences were, my experience of developing my act and also some stories of good and bad gigs. There are several other episodes of Living Through Comedy too that you might like. Both feature conversations about comedy, doing stand up and life in general. You should be able to find Living Through Comedy on iTunes, but if you can’t you can listen to it on the page for this episode. You could also visit www.livingthroughcomedy.libsyn.com and listen there, on a mobile. So that’s nice. About an hour of conversation between James and me, on his new podcast. 2. I was interviewed by Noman Hosni for Somewhere Else Dreamin’, his new YouTube series which is all about interviewing people (comedians usually) about their experiences as an ExPat - that means someone who is living in another country. I suppose it’s a nice way to say “immigrant”. And because I am an immigrant, living here in France and I’ve spent time in Japan too, Noman decided I would be a good person to interview. Noman Hosni is a very funny professional stand up comedian here in France. I interviewed him on the podcast once. He is doing very well as a comedian in France, but he has decided to move to LA in order to pursue his career there. Before going he is working on his English and also finding out about people’s experiences of moving to different countries. I love hanging out with Noman and in this interview I tell a few stories including the time I got sick in Japan (which I spoke about in a podcast a few years ago) and my experiences of English teaching and moving to France. Check it out! It’s available on YouTube “somewhere else dreamin luke thompson” and embedded on the website here, but also it’s on Spotify in audio format. It’s a YouTube video and you’ll see me and Noman talking, but Spotify has the audio version. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mwI0OeixLoo  I’m doing a lot of premium content this month, but I also have some free episodes in the pipeline including some more stuff about British comedy and an episode about Queen, the rock band, which has been requested many times by listeners, so it’s nice to finally be getting around to talking about Queen on the podcast after 600 episodes. There are still many more topics and things to talk about on this podcast. :) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

600. Episode 600 Livestream Ask Me Anything Audio Here's the audio for the YouTube livestream "Ask Me Anything" for episode 600. Enjoy! The video is available on YouTube and in the LEP App. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9Iw  Premium episodes arriving during June! Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

599. Oliver Gee Returns with Stories to Tell Australian journalist and podcaster Oliver Gee returns to LEP to tell us some stories about the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, meeting famous comedians as a journalist, learning Swedish and French and his honeymoon tour of France on a 50cc Vespa scooter. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9H5 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

598. The Rick Thompson Report: EU Elections / Theresa May / Brexit / Football Talking to my dad about the EU election results, Theresa May resigning as Prime Minister, Brexit and English football teams in Europe. Notes, transcripts and videos available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9wc italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[AUDIO] Hello! Here are the details of the Episode 600 YouTube live stream Just a quick announcement about the episode 600 live stream, happening on Friday 7 June at 3pm Paris time. Links below. Episode 600 Live Stream link on YouTube https://youtu.be/kHVwBLdo7-s  LEPsters meetup in Prague on 7 June at 5pm. Facebook link here https://www.facebook.com/events/429311391196900/  Episode page on teacherluke.co.uk https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9vy  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

597. Growing Up / Getting Older / Becoming a Father (with Paul Taylor) In this conversation Paul and I get a bit deep & meaningful and talk about where Paul is in his life at this point, including our thoughts about becoming a father, getting older and growing up. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9sP Spoken offer http://www.getspoken.com/lep  🍾🍾 Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

596. SLEEP with Amber & Paul All about the subject of SLEEP, with Amber & Paul, including insomnia, sleepwalking, falling asleep on public transport, snoring cats, Paul learning Arabic in his sleep & more, including some slightly disgusting stories, which is nice! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9ri italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

595. Andy Johnson Returns (Part 2) Eating / TV Series / Football / Music Asking Andy questions from a speaking task in the English File Intermediate course book and chatting about eating habits, TV series, Liverpool & Tottenham in the European Champions' League and music we've been listening to recently including some stories about Steely Dan and The Beatles. Intro & ending transcripts + Videos available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9pW italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

594. Andy Johnson Returns (Part 1) Moving House / London vs Canterbury / English Teaching Chatting to friend of the podcast Andy Johnson about moving house, comparisons between London and Canterbury and different approaches to teaching English. Intro & outtro transcripts available. Part 2 coming soon. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9pT  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

593. Going through pages in an old diary Listen to me reading out some pages from a diary which I wrote when I was 16 years old. Join me as I take a trip down memory lane and find out what I was doing, thinking and feeling 25 years ago. Some language is explained along the way. Vocabulary notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9p6  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

592. It always seems impossible until it's done An unedited ramble about motivation for language learning, dealing with challenges, getting started on a task, getting work done and my process for making episodes of the podcast. There’s also some news, some OPP and a couple of songs on the guitar at the end. Vocabulary notes, links, videos and song lyrics are available on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9o9 italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

591. London Native Speaker Interviews REVISITED (Part 1) Revisiting a video I made for YouTube in 2009 and teaching you some descriptive and idiomatic vocabulary in the process. Episode page with video, transcript and vocabulary notes https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9lZ  English lessons on Cambly + 10 free minutes www.teacherluke.co.uk/cambly Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

590. [2/2] Film Club: Avengers Endgame / Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Fred Eyangoh) Part 2 of this film club episode, including the rest of my chat with Fred Eyangoh and then a monologue from me. This one contains predictions for Avengers Endgame, the future of Marvel Studios and some other film franchises including Star Wars. No spoilers given! Notes, scripts and videos available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9jQ  Check out "The Wrong Man" by Spoken - free audio, English study guides and transcripts here http://www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

589. [1/2] Film Club: Avengers Endgame / Marvel Cinematic Universe (with Fred Eyangoh) Part 1 of a big ramble about Avengers Endgame, Marvel Studios and comic book movies in general with my friend, comedian Fred Eyangoh. No spoilers! Part 2 coming soon... Episode page with scripts, notes and videos https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9iw  Check out "The Wrong Man" by Spoken - free audio, English study guides and transcripts here http://www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

588. Punctuation Rules / Book Review (Part 2) Apostrophe, Full Stop, Comma Part 2 of my episode about punctuation. This one covers punctuation rules for apostrophe, full stop and comma. Also you can hear the rest of my book review of Punctuation..?  by User Design. Transcript available. English lessons on Cambly + 10 free minutes www.teacherluke.co.uk/cambly Episode page with transcript and pictures https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9ih  Punctuation..? by User Design - available from various bookshops https://www.userdesignillustrationandtypesetting.com/books/punctuation/index.html Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

587. Punctuation Rules / Book Review (Part 1) This episode is about the importance of punctuation in writing. I'll teach you the names of various punctuation symbols and review a cool punctuation reference book that someone sent me recently, and yes I do think it is possible to have a cool book about punctuation! Transcript available. English lessons on Cambly + 10 free minutes www.teacherluke.co.uk/cambly Episode page with transcript and pictures https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9i9  Punctuation..? by User Design - available from various bookshops https://www.userdesignillustrationandtypesetting.com/books/punctuation/index.html Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

10 years ago to this day I published the first episode of LEP. 10 years later I can now say that I'm making a living from doing what I love.  Thank you for listening and making my podcast what it is today! Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

586. The Importance of Listening Recently I was reading a book about listening and learning English. This episode is a summary of what I read, including details of how listening fits in with learning English, some considerations of the importance of listening and also some tips for how to improve your English with audio. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9eg Check out Cambly for 10 free mins of conversation with a native speaker www.teacherluke.co.uk/cambly Ambassador code: teacherluke Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

585. Alternative British Citizenship Tests with Paul Taylor Testing Paul again on his knowledge of Britishness with several alternative British citizenship tests and some very British problems. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9dd italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

584. Posh or not posh? (Part 3) with Amber & Paul Amber & Paul join me to talk again about poshness, posh accents and posh celebrities. This episode is full of different British accents - posh, RP and regional differences. It's also full of comedy and I found myself laughing out loud while editing this, especially the interview with the football player that Paul tells us about. I hope you enjoy it. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9bL italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

583. British Comedy: The Dirty Fork / Restaurant Sketch (Monty Python) Analysing the English in a comedy sketch by Monty Python's Flying Circus, and considering British communication style relating to apologising, making complaints and minimising language. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-6CE italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

582. Posh or not posh? (Part 2) Guess the Posh British Celebrities Can you identify which UK celebrities are posh and which are not? Let's listen to some British celebrities speaking, check their Wikipedia pages and work out of these people are truly posh or not. You'll hear samples of lots of spoken English in this episode and we'll focus on accent and pronunciation. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9bx  Spoken Mystery Story offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

581. Posh or not posh? (Part 1) Understanding Posh People and Posh Accents Everything you always wanted to know about posh people, but were afraid to ask. This episode is all about poshness in people, posh accents and what it really means to be posh. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-87O Spoken Mystery Story www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

580. Ramble / Listener Comments / Robots / Vampires / Two Taps in the Bathroom A rambling episode with responses to listener comments, LEPster meetups, English Robot 3000 & 5000, vampires leaving comments on my website and the continuing mystery of two taps in the bathroom. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-9aO italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

579. [2/2] IELTS Q&A with Ben Worthington from IELTS Podcast More conversation with Ben Worthington from IELTSPodcast.com, talking about English skills and exam skills, considering the whole approach and mindset that you need to succeed in IELTS. Includes questions from listeners. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-99N italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

578. [1/2] IELTS Q&A with Ben Worthington from IELTS Podcast A conversation with IELTS teacher Ben Worthington about the IELTS test, with advice for getting your best score in speaking, writing, reading and listening. Includes questions from listeners. Part 1 of 2. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-99K italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

577. UK vs US Slang Game (with Jennifer from English Across the Pond) In this episode I'm joined by Jennifer - a podcaster from the USA, and we test each other on our knowledge of slang from our countries. Listen and learn some informal words from British and American English. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-96Z  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk English Across the Pond Special Membership Offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/eatp  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

576. Talking about Comedy, Books, Films & Music with James My brother James is back on the podcast for a 90min+ mega-ramble about things like: taking sick days from work, snowboarding, doing stand-up for the first time, the new film about Laurel & Hardy, Steve Coogan / Alan Partridge, The Beastie Boys and making mix tapes on cassette tapes in the 1990s. Intro transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-90U italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

575. British Comedy: Paul Chowdhry Understand a stand-up comedy routine by Paul Chowdhry, a British comedian of Indian descent. We'll break down his comedy bit by bit, understand each line and learn some English in the process. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-90J italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

574. [2/2] The Rick Thompson Report: Brexit Q&A (January 2019) My dad answers some questions from listeners about Brexit. Includes conversation about Theresa May's deal, the prospect of a 'no-deal' Brexit, Parliamentary democracy, the possible reactions to revoking Article 50 or cancelling Brexit altogether, chances of a second referendum, Scottish independence, the sensitive Northern Ireland situation, consequences for EU nationals in the UK and the question of trading on WTO rules. Almost everything, basically! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Ya  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

573. [1/2] The Rick Thompson Report: Brexit Update (January 2019) Part 1 of a double episode of the Rick Thompson Report, talking to my dad about the latest developments in the shambolic Brexit story. This time we're focusing on what happened in last week's Parliamentary vote on Theresa May's Brexit deal, what the situation is now, and what might happen in the future. We talk about no-deal Brexit, the possibility of a 2nd referendum, postponing Article 50 and more. Part 2 contains questions from listeners and will be available soon. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Y0  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

572. Worst Stand-up Gig Experiences (with Amber & Paul) Amber, Paul and Luke tell some stories of their worst ever stand-up comedy gigs. Expect some anecdotes about embarrassing and humiliating experiences on stage, and "dying on your arse". Intro & outtro transcripts available + bonus audio in the LEP app.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Vz  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Understand a funny anecdote by comedian Bill Burr. In this episode we’re going to do some intensive listening practice using the true story of a bizarre encounter with a man on a plane. Look out for language for travelling by plane, some American English and A LOT of swearing, particularly the F word. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8T1  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

570. Learning & Teaching English with Zdenek Lukas (Part 2) Part 2 of my chat with Zdenek from the Czech Republic. In this one we talk about becoming an English teacher, taking the infamous DELTA teaching course, Zdenek's podcast and board game, and some long-lost (and embarrassing) comedy YouTube videos I made in the pre-podcast days. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8P3  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

569. Learning & Teaching English with Zdenek Lukas (Part 1) Talking to English teacher & podcaster Zdenek Lukas from the Czech Republic about various things, including how he learned English by working on a building site in East London with a team of cockneys who couldn't pronounce his name properly. Also includes tangents about football commentators, climate change denial, flat earth conspiracy theorists and more. [Part 1 of 2] Intro & outro transcripts available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8OZ  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

568. What is Luke's English Podcast, and how can it help you with your English? What are the aims & objectives for this podcast? How can you use it to improve your English? This episode is an introduction for new listeners and a reminder for long-term listeners: This is a podcast all about learning English through listening, while having some fun in the process. Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8NS  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

567. Alternative Christmas Stories & Poems / Beatles / Happy New Year from LEP! This is the last episode of LEP before the end of 2018. It's Christmas and New Years Eve is approaching, so it's time for the traditional Christmas episode of LEP! In this one I'm going to read some Christmas stories and a couple of poems which are a bit different to the normal stuff you get at this time of year. Also, keep listening for a funny appearance by The Beatles. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Fk  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

566. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 6) 2018 with Amber Minogue Here's the final part of this series about trending words and issues in 2018, this time with friend of the podcast Amber Minogue. Join us as we talk about jogging, picking up litter, bird watching, VAR & football, veganism, ethnic diversity in Hollywood and more. Notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Et Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

565. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 5) 2018 with Amber Minogue Talking to my friend Amber about some trending vocabulary and hot topics from 2018, like plastic pollution, dance crazes and the Brexit backstop. Includes discussion, language explanations, David Attenborough impressions and more. Notes available.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8DR  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

564. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 4) More trending vocabulary and issues of the moment, this time focusing on topics like working conditions in the gig economy, the pros and cons of instagram and a true story about a unicorn riding a bike in London. Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Dr  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk LONDON LEPsters! I am performing stand-up comedy in London on Saturday 15 December in the afternoon. This is a very late-notice announcement! Come to the Comedy Store on Oxenden Street in Leicester Square to see me perform stand-up with Paul Taylor. The show is FREE. No reservations. Showtime at 4pm but arrive at 3.30pm to queue like British people. First come, first served. https://thecomedystore.co.uk/london/contact-us/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

563. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 3) Continuing this episode series with vocabulary explanations and discussions of big issues from the last couple of years. Includes talk of how social media affects the way we see the world, the pros and cons of fidget spinners, and current debates about gender identity, including my thoughts on the new female Doctor in the classic British TV series, Doctor Who. Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8CU italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

562. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 2) Vocabulary explanations and discussions of hot topics from the last couple of years. Talking about some controversial political stuff like the rise of fascism and anti-fascism, the relative popularity of UK opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn, and how the winter season changes people's feelings about romance and relationships. Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Cl  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

561. The Collins Words of the Year (Part 1) The first part of an episode series about trending vocabulary - words which have been used a lot in the last couple of years. Listen to me talk about words chosen by Collins Dictionaries as their "Words of the Year". This first episode focuses on how publishers use big data and then lots of discussion about the 2017 word of the year, which was fake news. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8pk  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to comedian Sarah Donnelly about how she writes her jokes, advice on public speaking and how to avoid nerves and negative feelings, performing stand-up comedy in another language, and more. Sarah is a comedian and language teacher from the US,  now living in France. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8Bz italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

559. The Rick Thompson Report: Brexit Chaos (November 2018) Talking to my dad, Rick Thompson, about recent developments in the story of Brexit - Britain's exit from the European Union. Recorded on 18 November 2018. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8z2 italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

558. Rambling in the new Sky-Pod Another solo episode recorded in the new sky-pod. Talking about moving to the new flat, some podcast news, meeting Louis CK, WW1 remembrance, rock climbing and more... Some vocab is explained during the episode. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8xQ  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

557. I'm a Rambling Guy (Monologue - Autumn 2018) A rambling monologue about my recent French test, a duck-related error, responses to the Alan Partridge episodes and the Russian comedy club video, moving out of the sky-pod, and life with my wife and daughter. A video version of this episode is available for Premium subscribers in the LEP app and online. www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium Yes, this episode is long… but you don’t have to listen to it in one sitting. Listen to a bit, then stop and go to work/college, then listen to the rest later. This is much more convenient if you are using a podcast app, like the LEP app (available in the app store on your phone of course!) because it will remember where you stopped listening. Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2018/10/29/557-im-a-rambling-guy-monologue-autumn-2018/ italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk :) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to English teacher Jessica Beck about her new website, "Honestly English" and some typical topics she talks about and teaches, including the #MeToo movement and our favourite female superheroes and comedians. Videos and links available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8uH italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

555. Raphael Miller's Summer School Report Raphael Miller is back on the podcast to tell us about his experience of running a summer school for international teenagers in Liverpool. The conversation includes lots of stories and descriptions of what happened at the school this summer, including things like teenage sleeping habits, a Chinese celebrity teenager, the proper way to eat a pizza, piano-playing Italian wonder-kids, making tie-dye t-shirts, riding roller-coasters, and blossoming friendships across national borders. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8us  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

554. ODD NEWS STORIES (with Mum & Dad) Discussing some strange and funny news stories with my parents. Thanks to my Mum & Dad for their contribution to this episode. Transcripts and notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8u1  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up for LEP Premium https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

553. Fighting Wildland Fires with Benny the Russian Firefighter Talking to firefighter Anton Beneslavsky (aka "Benny") who works as the leader of an international fire fighting project. We talk about becoming a firefighter, the work that he’s doing with Greenpeace around the world and the very serious threat of climate change. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8tv  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

552. Discussing Comedy & Culture (with Amber & Paul) Amber, Paul and I listen to a comedy video which is often sent to me by listeners to this podcast. The video is about the experience of trying to understand people when they speak English. Let's see what the pod-pals think of this comedy from another country. The conversation then turns to comedy, culture, language and some more Alan Partridge. I read out some listener comments at the end of the episode. Notes, transcripts and links available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8sS Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

551. Catching Up with Amber & Paul #8 - Stereotypes Chatting to the pod-pals Amber & Paul again and this time the conversation turns to the subject of national stereotypes, and why Paul has bleached his hair blond. Notes & transcripts on the website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8sg Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

550. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 3) This episode is long, but stick with it! This is the final part of this trilogy of British Comedy episodes about Alan Partridge, analysing some of the quieter and darker moments in Alan's life. Expect analysis of both the comedy and the language. Vocabulary lists and transcript available. Vocabulary lists and transcript available.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8s9 italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

549. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 2) Building on the previous episode, this time we're looking at how Alan Partridge interacts with people in his every day life and how this results in some classic moments of British TV comedy. All the material is explained with plenty of vocabulary to learn. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8rP  italki offer https://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

548. British Comedy: Alan Partridge (Part 1) Continuing the comedy theme by analysing a character that most British people know but learners of English find difficult to understand. Check the page for the episode for transcripts, notes and videos. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8rv italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

547. Best Jokes from the Edinburgh Festival Fringe Studying some jokes told by stand-up comedians at the Edinburgh Fringe comedy festival, and dissecting them for vocabulary. Learn English with some jokes and find out about typical joke structures used by stand-up comedians. Transcripts and jokes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8rf  Spoken offer http://www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

546. Death by Meteor This episode is called Death By Meteor and it’s all about asteroids, space, science, maths, astrophysics and the end of the world! Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8qA italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

545. The Hitchhiker by Roald Dahl (Short Story) Learn English with this short story by British writer Roald Dahl. Introduction transcript and short story link available on the episode page, here https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8qm  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  :) Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

544. The Rick Thompson Report: No Deal Brexit Talking to my dad about the current Brexit situation, including what could actually happen in the UK if we leave the EU with no deal. Expect language relating to politics, economics and the big issues of the day. Intro and outtro transcripts available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8pp Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking about the creepy subject of eating insects, which might be the solution to many of the problems that humans face as a species. This episode includes discussion of eating habits, environmental issues and some insect-related idioms and expressions. Transcripts and vocabulary lists available. Bon appetit! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8nD italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  :)  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

542. Talking Rubbish & Just Having Fun with The Thompsons Talking to my dad, mum and brother about all manner of topics, including: Space, climbing mountains, British comedy, fishing, earworms, tattoos, David Beckham, jokes, citizenship tests, baby monkeys, ghosts and celebrity impressions. Intro and outtro transcripts available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8oV  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

541. What British People Say vs What They Mean Examining British communication style and debunking a few myths about how British people communicate. This episode is based on a famous infographic called "What British People Say vs What They Really Mean" or "The Anglo-EU Translation Guide". It contains lots of thoughts about how direct and indirect cultures communicate with each other, and some samples of business English, with a few improvised scenarios too! Transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8nF  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

540. What’s Up? Post World Cup / News / LEP Meetup London / Super Mario Earworms Giving some news, summing up the World Cup, England out, France win, and some chat about music that gets stuck in your head. Get some English stuck in your head with this episode. Transcript available! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8mW italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

More football episodes - but it won't last forever! In this one I'm in England talking to my Dad and my brother about the world cup so far including England's performances, World Cup songs, diving, VAR and predictions for the semi finals. Enjoy! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8kI italic offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking about the second round of the World Cup in Russia, including comments about the teams, the games, the issues, England's penalties vs Colombia and the way football commentators speak. Listener comments are read out. Notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8la  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

537. How Olly Richards Learns a Language (Part 2) Intermediate Plateau / The Magic of Story / Pronunciation & Personality / Classroom vs Self-Guided Learning The rest of my conversation with polyglot Olly Richards, talking about how to overcome the intermediate plateau, the magic of story, pronunciation and identity issues, and self-guided learning.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8kw  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

536. How Olly Richards Learns a Language (Part 1) Compelling Material / Input-based Learning Talking to polyglot Olly Richards about the benefits of listening, reading and using stories to learn English. Full of insights and strategies for effective language learning. Transcripts and notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8k5  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

535. World Cup 2018 [1] Talking about the World Cup 2018 in Russia, including comments about the teams, players, groups, VAR and England's performances. Notes & transcripts available. Episode page  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

LEP Premium is ready - www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium  This is an announcement to let you know that LEP Premium is now ready to go. If you want to superpower your English into the 9th dimension, then you can get started by signing up for LEP Premium. Let me tell you about it. I’m about to upload some premium episodes into the app. They’ll also be available online if you don’t have the app - but the app is going to be the most convenient way to listen to these episodes in the normal way, when you’re out and about or when you’re at home studying. There will be about 3 episodes coming - probably already there by now, and then more episodes + bonuses every month after that. The way this works is that you’ll need to just create a profile online with my host, sign into the app with that profile and you’ll get access to all the premium episodes I’ve uploaded and am going to upload. www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium to get started. Then Get Access to Premium Episodes. Complete the details and get your login codes and then bob’s your uncle. In the app the login is in the settings menu. Make sure your version of the LEP app is updated. Check the PREMIUM category and that’s where you’ll find the episodes. There will be episodes coming regularly and I’ll also upload other things for premium subscribers, including pdfs, shorter episodes, phrasal verbs and videos. There will be quite a lot of content for the premium subscribers - in the app and online. Yep - you will also have to pay for the premium episodes, but it will be a small amount - just a few dollars - like the price of a coffee, and finally this is a way for me to monetise my online work, and for you to support this whole project. PREMIUM DEAL All the usual episodes of LEP, sometimes with bonuses if you’re using the app, (obviously). Minimum 2 premium episodes per month (MINIMUM - probably more) + various bonuses Premium episodes will be primarily focused on teaching you language. Helping you to develop your vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation with a special interest in looking at how English really sounds vs how it is written. It’s all about decoding language, helping you realise how it really sounds as well as how it is structured. Pdfs with transcripts, vocab lists and notes for each P episode - available in the app or downloadable online. More phrasal verb episodes - New ones :) Video versions of LEP Episodes sometimes (not every single episode, but when possible) Invitations to live YouTube streaming events - e.g. live podcast recordings or online workshops & Q&A sessions - only for premium subscribers (arrange a date, tell them you’ll send the email 30 mins before the live stream, set up the live stream as unlisted, send the email with link, start) All content in the app and online So the podcast will continue as normal with normal episodes being free, but premium subscribers can access all this other stuff too. Premium Episode content Every premium episode will primarily be about teaching language to you. Grammar, vocab or pron. Episodes will be either: Language Reviews focusing on English which has come up naturally in normal episodes of LEP (e.g. unpacking the grammar, vocab or pron in conversations or monologues). Learn real English as it is spoken by my friends and guests. Language Lessons focusing on grammar, vocab or pronunciation (similar to recent grammar lessons). I’ll pick useful, important or requested areas of language and analyse + explain them in proper detail. You might think - what’s the difference between premium and normal? Normal LEP episodes can be divided into 2 functions: To give you listening practice. Exposure to plenty of spoken English is vital for developing proper English skills. Listen a lot and you learn language as a consequence. Sometimes I explain things as I go in order to help make things clear and because as a teacher for over 16 years, I’m always teaching you language, even if that’s not the primary aim of the episode. The primary aim of episodes like this is to explain a topic to you, to teach you about culture, tell you stories, make you laugh, interview people and generally encourage you to listen to English as it is spoken naturally. Language learning happens as a consequence, and you can push it further and more effectively by using the transcripts and notes that I publish free on my website. To teach you language directly, rather than just giving you listening practice. I pick certain language points and explain them explicitly with definitions and made up examples. Or I pick out language that has come up in conversation and teach it back to you, helping you to notice features of natural speech. I’ve been teaching English for over 16 years. I’m well-qualified and experienced. I have a particular set of skills for teaching. I can use those skills to explain, define and demonstrate aspects of English directly to help you learn directly. This is about focusing on language from the bottom up. Putting it simply, Type 1 = topic episodes. Type 2 = language episodes. Most episodes deal with the first option, with a bit of the second option thrown in too. E.g. the recent episodes with Andy or other conversations in which I explain the vocab and language afterwards. Some episodes deal with the second option, with a bit of 1 thrown in. E.g. language focused episodes, like the recent Grammar Questions, or ones about phrases with GET or plenty of episodes in the archive in which I teach idioms, verb tenses, connected speech, etc. Type 2 episodes often take a long time to prepare. They also involve me using professional skills that at this point in my career should come with a fee Premium episodes will primarily be type 2 episodes. I’ve decided that I need to try and monetise some of my podcast work. I’ve been doing it for 9 years. This April was the 9 year anniversary of LEP. Doing the podcast is my part-time job. I teach at the BC and I do my podcast. I really want to continue doing it, I want to support your English, but I also need to support my family! I think you understand. I want the podcast to remain free, and that will happen. Normal episodes of LEP will still be free. There might be slightly less of them, but so be it. But they will be free. If you want to support LEP after all these years you can by becoming a premium member and you’ll get a bunch of serious bonus content too. Jack I remember listening to the pink gorilla episode about a year ago and during the episode you said "OK, never mind". Same thing happened again and when it happened the second time I thought : Why does King say "OK, never mind" why doesn't he just say "OK" ? What does "never mind" mean? And that curiosity led me to google and that's how I learned that word :) So with LEP Premium episodes you are essentially explaining the listeners all the language without them having to do any hard work :P they just have to listen to that episode everyday until it clicks.   Your vocabulary is going to get so good This is a double whammy of just absorbing English through exposure and having things carefully pointed out and clarified, explained How do teachers choose what English to teach you? It’s based on general corpora of English. With this method the corpora is LEP. Learn the English you hear on the podcast. So, not only will you be hearing a lot of vocabulary just coming up naturally in context in normal episodes (which is a really solid way to build awareness of English into your life steadily, bit by bit) but also you’ll regularly have things clarified and taught to you by me afterwards. I think it should be a powerful combination of natural exposure to English in full context and also good old fashioned language teaching from me - all based on the same language. I think to get this full LEP experience you’ll need to be a premium subscriber. It’ll also help you to understand and appreciate the normal episodes of the podcast that much more. For example, imagine hearing a conversation with Amber & Paul - you might enjoy it because of the fun vibe we have between us, but there’s bound to be loads of things you’ll miss. Then you can hear a premium episode which clarifies so much of what we said. You could then go back and listen to the original episode again, armed with so much more understanding - you’d understand much much more of it and as a result a lot of that language is going to stick with you. It’s the ideal combination I reckon. Also, your grammar is going to get more and more solid as I will make a point of highlighting features of grammar, as well as vocabulary as we go. LEPP episodes won’t just be about explaining vocab and grammar you’ve heard. Some episodes will be lessons that just focus on important bits of language that you need to know anyway, even if they haven’t come up specifically in other episodes. It’s all about language - raising awareness, raising your understanding, improving your accuracy so you avoid common errors, making you more confident with the language but not in an abstract way - in a way that connects it to how the language is actually used and has actually been used in conversations you’ve already heard on the podcast. That’s the thinking behind LEP Premium. I hope you jump on for the ride. Now, there are 3 premium episodes recorded and ready to go and they’ll be available to you almost immediately. Remember, they’ll be in the LEP App in the premium category, and on the LEP Premium page at teacherluke.co.uk/premium That’s where you’ll find the episodes and you’ll be able to get the pdfs in those places too. Use the website teacherluke.co.uk/premium to set up your premium profile with a login code and password. Then you can sign into the app and gain access to premium content there, and also sign in online and get episodes there, including any premium players on my website which will be locked unless you’re a subscriber. Choose your payment plan. This is where you are going to help me out with a contribution each month.   Price How much do you reckon you’d expect to pay for all this stuff? Think of it as a contribution towards helping the podcast. $3.99 per month = Buy me a pint of beer in a pub $19.99 every six months ($3.29 per month) Buy me a Big coffee - 15% discount $34.99 per year ($2.89 per month) Buy me a Small coffee - 30% discount Remember all the stuff you’ll be able to get: Minimum 2 premium episodes per month (MINIMUM - probably more) Pdfs with transcripts, vocab lists and notes for each P episode - available in the app or downloadable online. More phrasal verb episodes Video versions of LEP Episodes (not every single episode, but when possible) Invitations to live YouTube streaming events - e.g. live podcast recordings or online workshops & Q&A sessions (arrange a date, tell them you’ll send the email 30 mins before the live stream, set up the live stream as unlisted, send the email with link, start) All content in the app and online Any questions, let me know at luketeacher@hotmail.com There will also be at least one page on the website where you can leave comments for premium content. First thing, get your premium profile set up and get access to about 3 episodes which will be available in the next couple of days. Then look forward to regular content coming in - language reviews of conversations with guests, grammar and pronunciation lessons - all the things you need to progress in your English with Luke’s English Podcast. www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium to get started In the app you sign in in the settings page. I hope you’re as excited as me to really dig deep into British English and learn the same stuff that people actually say on a daily basis, rather than just some words on paper or in a book which look nothing like the way they sound when people speak. www.teacherluke.co.uk/premium to get started Speak to you again soon. Bye Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

534. Sugar Sammy Interview (Part 2) Language & Comedy Part 2 of my chat with Canadian stand-up comedian Sugar Sammy, talking about his 4 languages, TV shows from our childhood, copying Indian accents, language-related controversy in Quebec, Sammy’s crowd-work skills, stories of difficult gigs in the UK, and our thoughts on recent Star Wars films. At the end of the episode you can hear my spoiler-free review of “Solo: A Star Wars Story”. Transcriptions and notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8jK  Spoken offer www.getspoken.com/lep  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sugar Sammy is a very popular and famous comedian from Canada. He's often described as Montreal's #1 stand up comedian. He speaks 4 languages, he has performed comedy in lots of countries. He might be coming to your country soon to make you laugh. Ladies and gentlemen - meet the wonderful Sugar Sammy! Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8jD  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is a history of The World Cup. You’ll see that it’s very long! I didn’t expect it to be this long. I hope you enjoy it! I covers all the World Cups we’ve had since 1930, focusing on the key events with a few dodgy jokes along the way. You can read 99% of the transcript on the page for this episode. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8jl    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Test yourself and learn various verbs and nouns related to crime. Features some amusing chat and anecdotes with Moz from the Murder Mile True Crime Podcast. Transcripts and vocabulary available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8iF italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

My friend Moz (Michael J. Buchanan-Dunne) from the Murder Mile True Crime Podcast tells us some more true stories about murders from London's past. Contains some gruesome details and explicit descriptions, and some fascinating and unbelievable true stories! Intro and outtro transcripts available. *Adults Only: This episode contains gory details and explicit violent descriptions* Spoken offer http://www.getspoken.com/lep Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8iD  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

529. The "M" Word (with Andy Johnson) Friend of the podcast Andy Johnson returns to give us some news and tell some stories all related to things that begin with the letter "M". Intro & outtro transcripts available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8ir  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

528. The Royal Wedding (with Mum) Talking to my mum about the royal wedding between Prince Harry & Meghan Markle. Describing the ceremony, the guests and the dress, and discussing the place of the monarchy in modern British life. Some transcriptions and vocabulary available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8i2 italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Image linked via Telegraph.co.uk https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/05/20/cutest-royal-wedding-pictures-prince-george-princess-charlotte/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

527. Can Paul Taylor Pass The UK Citizenship Test? Testing Paul Taylor's knowledge of British life, history and culture and discussing the "Life in the UK" citizenship test. Practise listening to British English natural speech, learn facts about the UK and have a laugh as Paul gets angry about this test for people who want to become UK citizens. Will Paul actually pass the test? Listen to find out what happens. Take the same test https://lifeintheuktestweb.co.uk/test-1/  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8hD italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

[Audio version] Catching up with Paul Taylor and talking about his recent trips to Japan & Barcelona, the pros and cons of being a tourist and some recommendations for people visiting London and Paris as tourists. Video available on the website and in the LEP app. For LEP App users - find the video in the Videos category. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8h9 italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  VOTE FOR LEP in the British Podcast Awards http://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote      Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Help me build my pod-castle! Vote here: http://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote  Click the link and search for "luke's english podcast" Thank you to everyone who's already voted. Fingers crossed! 🤞🤞🤞 Vocabulary in this Mini Episode to be in with a chance (of doing something) you need to achieve certain milestones it shows that you're getting somewhere, you're making progress it's a flag you can wave or a banner you can show to people you need flags you can fly from the top of the castle to fly the flag of victory I'm asking you to do me a favour in return for the free things I've been giving to you "I can't be bothered" "I think I'll just not bother" it would mean the world to me it's up to you whether I actually get this or not I'm hoping, praying, wondering whether or not it's actually possible listen to me begging! that would be a nice birthday present, wouldn't it? get your skates on don't hang around don't put it off, it's not the washing up! you need to do it sooner rather than later don't leave it until the last minute men, women and any other denomination you choose to respect I didn't video the second one because I'd run out of memory on my camera-thing I was up for about an hour and a half at a very ungodly hour she got a bit over-excited I've got a dry, painful, sore throat and I've got a blocked-up nose it's raining and its a bit chilly Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

525. Ninja August / Podcast Corrections / Useful Japanese Cat (Listener Comments & Questions) Responding to more comments and questions from listeners, including some rambling about public holidays in France, why May is like 'ninja August', some corrections to what I said about bats and Stephen Hawking on the podcast and the story of an amazing useful cat from Japan. Vote for LEP in the British Podcast Awards http://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8gz  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Transcript Collaboration https://teacherluke.co.uk/episodes-with-transcripts/transcripts/  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking about words which can be pronounced several ways, words which are often pronounced incorrectly by native speakers and the debates, arguments and frustration that arises between native speakers as a result. Includes the "You Say Tomato..." song and the Grammar Nazi sketch, explained. Transcript & notes available. Vote for LEP in the British Podcast Awards! http://www.britishpodcastawards.com/vote  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8ge italki offer http://teacherluke.co.uk/talk    Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to fellow English teacher Cara Leopold about advice for using TV shows and films to learn English, both with and without subtitles. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8fB  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking to my ex-colleague Raphael Miller about his new summer school for teenagers + rambling about British social and communication culture, growing up in Liverpool, studying at Oxford University, the famous Star Wars actor Raphael knows and remembering some of the old-fashioned ways we used to describe computers and the internet. Transcripts and links below. 👨‍🎓🌞🇬🇧 www.yourenglishsummer.co.uk  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8ft  italki offer www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Usually when I talk to my brother on the podcast we talk about fairly obscure topics, like cult films, musical subcultures or skateboarding, but this time we chose a universal topic; pets. Listen to this conversation to hear James and me remembering the pets we had as children and discussing some issues related to keeping animals as pets. Transcript for the introduction and ending available on the website. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8f4 italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Check out the new episode in the LEP App to learn some really useful prepositional phrases & have some common doubts answered, like "on time vs in time vs at the beginning vs in the beginning vs at the end vs in the end" & more. Get the LEP App for your phone  iPhone/iPad – APPLE APP STORE 📱ANDROID – GOOGLE PLAY STORE    Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8eW  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

The second part of my chat with Andy Johnson. Listen out for 18 more idioms which will be explained later. Topics include: Twitter abuse, the other Andy Johnson, training for the London Marathon + more. Transcripts and vocabulary definitions available. Episode page: https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8dR  italki offer: http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A conversation with Andy Johnson including loads of idiomatic expressions and their explanations. First you can listen to a rambling chat with Andy and then I'll explain 25 idioms that came up during the conversation. Part 2 coming soon... Transcriptions, Vocabulary list & Definitions available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8dL  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Answering grammar questions from listeners, with details about verb tenses (including present continuous vs present perfect continuous & future continuous vs going to) and the language of newspaper headlines. Includes references to The Queen, The Legend of Zelda and a lot of pizza. Transcriptions & grammar notes available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8cN  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

I woke up this morning to the news that Stephen Hawking had died and I thought - I really must talk about this. He was a British scientist who must be considered one of the most significant people of recent years - a brilliant mind who contributed so much to our understanding of the nature of reality itself while also struggling against some extreme personal difficulties and for those reasons he’s a great inspiration to many people around the world. In this episode I’m just going to talk about him, his life, his achievements, his sense of humour and how he will continue to be an inspiration to people for many years to come. Let's learn some English along the way. Vocabulary list available Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8cy  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn English from an anecdote told by Sir Paul McCartney. Let's listen to Paul telling a sweet story about something funny that happened to him and George Harrison when they were teenagers, before they became world famous musicians in The Beatles. Let's listen to his story, do some intensive listening practice and then I'll help you understand everything. Also, let's have a laugh with some funny Paul McCartney impressions. Video and notes available below. Episode page https://teacherluke.co.uk/2018/03/10/516-paul-mccartneys-spider-story/  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode I'm talking to friends of the podcast Amber Minogue and Sarah Donnelly about the subject of raising children in a foreign country - in this case, France. So this is an episode all about cross-cultural experiences, specifically relating to parenthood. It's also about a new podcast and stage show which Amber & Sarah have just started. Transcriptions, notes and links available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8aE italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk   Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode you can hear me chatting to Fred Eyangoh and Alex Quillian and discussing various topics including growing up in different countries, recognising different accents in English, religious backgrounds, movie re-boots, Arnold Shwartzenegger going "nyarrrgh" and more. Fred and Alex are both stand-up comedians living in Paris who perform in English.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8b4  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A general ramble about things like: dishwasher sounds, online clickbait, updates to the LEP app, my recent appearances on some OPP (other people's podcasts), LEPster meetups and some responses to recent comments on the website. Notes, links & videos available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8bt italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking more about my experiences as a student of French, this time reading from notes I took during my French lessons (when I should have been focusing on the class!) and some considerations about learning a language in a classroom and learning on your own. Notes & transcript available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-8ab  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Sharing my experiences of learning French (or not learning it). My French and Me - How I learned some French as a child and how I'm failing to learn it properly as an adult. Includes conclusions about language learning, immersion and the importance of motivation, habit and simply applying yourself. Notes & transcriptions available. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-81p  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

In this episode you can listen to Amber, Paul and me as we take an online quiz and try to find out what school of philosophical thought we belong to. Are we empiricists, epicurianists, existentialists, hedonists, humanists, platonists, skeptics or stoicists? Listen on to find out more and to hear a full-on discussion of life, the universe and everything. Episode page: https://wp.me/p4IuUx-88T  italki offer: http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk PHILOSOPHY QUIZ LINK - CLICK HERE Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

This episode is all about philosophy and how this applies to language learning. Listen to me describing 8 different 'schools' of philosophical thought. Are hedonists good language learners? How do rationalists and empiricists disagree about how we learn languages? Is language learning an innate ability or just something that can only happen as a result of things we do after we're born?  And, how does philosophy answer life's big questions such as, "What's life all about?" "What are we doing here?" and "What shall we have for dinner?" Transcript available.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-88S italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Learn English by listening to Rick Thompson telling some true stories of petty crimes committed in an English town in 1851. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-88W  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Recommendations and descriptions of British comedy TV shows with some comments about how to use comedy TV shows to learn English. Transcript available on the episode page.  Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-81r  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Listen to readings of "If—" by Rudyard Kipling, a popular poem from England. Includes analysis of the vocabulary and the themes in the poem and also a chance to enjoy the unique voice of Sir Michael Caine - with some funny impressions too.  Transcript, vocabulary and videos available on the episode page. Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-81n italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Transcripts and Vocabulary Lists for Episode 505 Episode page https://wp.me/p4IuUx-87u  italki offer http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Intro Transcript Here is the third and final part of this trilogy of episodes about the latest Star Wars film. In this one you'll hear a conversation between my Dad, my brother and me that I recorded just after we'd seen the film a couple of weeks ago. Now, I know that this is perhaps a bit too much Star Wars content on this podcast. Even if you are a fan it might seem like overkill. So let me emphasise the value of the conversation in this episode as an opportunity for you to learn some natural English in an authentic way. You'll hear us talking spontaneously and then in the second half of this episode I'll to explain some of the bits of language that come up in the conversation. So, this isn't just chat about a film, it's a way to present you with real British English as it is actually spoken. When my family were staying with us for a few days during the Christmas holiday period, fairly soon after our daughter was born, Dad, James and I left my wife and my mum at home to look after the baby and we went off to see the new Star Wars film. This has become something of a Christmas tradition now. After seeing the film we came home, drank some red wine and then recorded our thoughts and comments for the podcast. That is this conversation. As you'd expect we were feeling quite excitable after having just sat through 2 and a half hours of intense Star Wars action and we were also slightly tipsy on French wine and so the conversation is quite animated and lively. You will hear us talking over each other a bit. Not every sentence is completed. Some words get cut off as we interrupt each other and although that's all completely normal in conversations like this, it might be difficult for you to understand everything, depending on your level of English, but watch out for various nice expressions that pop up during our chat. I'll be explaining some of them later in this episode. Right then, let's hear that conversation now - and remember of course that this will contain lots of plot spoilers for Star Wars Episode 8 - so if you haven't seen it yet, please do so before you listen to this. This is your final warning - plot spoilers are coming - please do not let us spoil your enjoyment of the film. You could always come back to listen to this episode later if you want. Outtro Transcript Near the end of the conversation there you heard my dad and my brother expressing their doubts about whether this conversation might be either too difficult for you to follow or simply boring for you to hear because of the slightly geeky levels of detail about Star Wars. That's quite a frequent reaction from them, isn't it. It's a bit annoying when they say that kind of thing, but to be honest, I think they've both got a point, to a certain degree, and this shows that making podcast content for learners of English can be a bit of a tightrope. Episodes should be clear enough for learners of English to understand, but at the same time spoken at a natural speed to make them authentic. I want to be able to explore subjects in some depth and detail so that the content is original and insightful without episodes becoming too specific, too long or simply uninteresting for you to listen to. It can be tricky to walk that line. The fact is, it's probably impossible to get it 100% right every time and produce episodes that are popular and useful for absolutely everybody across the board. But in the end I'm not going to worry about it too much. I expect I lost a few people with all this talk of Star Wars, but if that is the case - so be it. Looking on the bright side - maybe those of you who share my enthusiasm for these films have really enjoyed this trilogy. In any case, that's it for Star Wars for a while. Now, let's focus our attention on language - specifically vocabulary. What about some of the expressions, phrasal verbs and other bits of language that you heard? I've been through the conversation again and made a list. It's quite a big list. I wonder how many of these phrases how many you noticed and how many passed you by. We'll see. Let's go through them now. And this isn't Star Wars vocabulary - it's all English that you can use to talk about all manner of different things. This is your chance to broaden your vocabulary, increasing your understanding of not just this conversation but native-level English in general. Vocabulary (not just Star Wars related) Listen to the episode to hear my definitions and explanations. Your daughter is gorgeous and all in one piece, and very healthy and alert. It's a wonderful thing and I'm now an uncle. Dad: I'm wearing a flat cap, smoking a pipe, sitting by the fire and dozing. James: No change there then. There's been a big backlash against this film from the die-hard fans. Is there a theory that the score has been dragged down artificially? The sequel trilogy is a return to form, you think? The characters are running out of steam. It doesn't have the same wow factor as before. So they're exaggerating everything to keep it going. It didn't have the same feeling as the originals, that's what you can boil it down to. They added new scenes. They added nothing. They detracted from the originals. I was like you once. Full of beans and spunk! I punched a bloke in the face once for saying Hawk The Slayer was rubbish. I was defending the fantasy genre with terminal intensity when what I should have said is Dad, you're right, but let's give Krull a try and we'll discuss it later. Jar Jar Binks makes the Ewoks look like... f*cking... Shaft! (The Ewoks were annoying, but Jar Jar is so annoying and terrible that by comparison, the Ewoks look extremely cool, like Shaft. This does not mean that Shaft looks like an Ewok. It just means that Shaft is very cool and Jar Jar is very uncool.) Shaft (1971) Directed by Gordon Parks, Richard Roundtree (as John Shaft) Tim, I'm going to have to let you go. Phew! I thought you were going to fire me then! I thought it went seriously downhill when they started to introduce teddy bears. They used more animatronics and puppetry. There are a number of set pieces. It moves from one set piece to another set piece. I thought it was a little bit trying too hard. It was a little bit frenetic. It does go on a bit. I thought they could have done without the cute creatures. It's a bit of Ewokism here. To be honest I kind of got over my star wars obsession when I was about 12. I'm not one of these rabid fans. I'm starting to warm to the new characters. Dad said there were too many explosions. James: I know what you mean. It's the law of diminishing returns. You see one explosion and it's "ooh wow", and you see 100 explosions and it's like "meh". I liked the bit when the guy got chucked into the extractor fan. It was like he got chucked into a lettuce shredder. Bits of him went flying out. That was cool. The extractor fan/lettuce shredder - They should have a grill over that or some sort of guard rail. It's a health and safety issue. It's a health and safety nightmare. To me, it needs a bit of lightening up. I don't want it to be like one of these superhero films like Batman where everything's deadly serious and shrouded in seriousness. Come on it's a kid's film - just lighten up! On milking the sea alien - I thought that was wrong on many levels, but I laughed. I liked Adrian Edmonson. Every moment he was on screen I was stoked. The rest of this vocabulary is explained in the Luke's English Podcast App - Check the bonus content for episode 505 How to find bonus content for episodes in the app[/caption] Snoke was a classic baddie. He looked horrible and it was lovely when he came to a sticky end. Hang on, let me finish! Were you disappointed that we didn't learn anything else about him, that he just died? James: No I was glad to see the back of him. Some people feel disappointed that his character wasn't developed. Do you think he was killed too easily? Dad: Well, I think he was very cut up about it. (!!!) He was just a really evil thing that had to be got rid of. You take for granted the special effects involved. On Luke throwing away the lightsabre. Dad: He didn't hurl it into the sea, he just tossed it over his shoulder. Pronunciation: We've been to that island. We've been to those rocks. We've been into those huts. We've been there. /bin/ not /bi:n/ Maybe Chewie did eat the porg. Dad: I think, "Chewie" - the clue is in the name. He should have chewed into that porg. Luke Skywalker was flawed. He'd coached this trainee jedi, his nephew, who had perfect credentials, good bloodline. He peaked too early. You can see that we're running out of steam. Did you like the new AT-AT walkers? I thought they were sick. I liked the way they walked on their knuckles. I thought it was funny the way they look like they're grumpily stomping along on their knuckles. Gorilla walkers / guerrilla war in the forest (There's a moment where we go from talking about gorilla walkers to guerrilla warfare (Ewoks vs Empire). These are two different words that sound the same.) I was genuinely and generally interested. It didn't feel like they jumped the shark. Disney are going to milk this one dry. Luke Skywalker brushing his shoulder / Obama brushing his shoulder. He turned the tide against him by being too cool in the Whitehouse. At least I didn't sigh in this episode. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Continuing to talk about the latest Star Wars film at length, going through the storyline and giving my thoughts on the characters, events and the audience backlash. Transcript available below. Episode page: https://wp.me/p4IuUx-87j  Transcript (95% complete) OK, so if you check the length of this episode you’ll see it’s more than 2 hours long - Yes, this is definitely the longest episode of LEP I’ve ever done! And this is part 2 of a double episode. If you put parts 1 and 2 together that adds up to nearly 3.5 hours of me talking about Star Wars The Last Jedi. Added to that, the next episode will also be about Star Wars - and that will be a conversation between my dad, my brother and me. So, this has become something of a Star Wars marathon on Luke’s English Podcast. Those of you who are fans of Star Wars will probably be happy about that! Those of you who aren’t interested in Star Wars, or if you just think this film completely sucks - of course you could just skip this episode - I’ll be uploading more non-Star Wars episodes soon, I promise. OK, so strap in then, let’s embark on part 2 of this epic Star Wars themed episode. Hi, welcome back to the podcast. This is part 2 of a double episode I’m doing about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. In this one I’m going to continue going through the storyline of the film and giving my thoughts and feelings about the characters and events. I thought I’d be able to do all of this in one episode but I have got a bit carried away so I’ve split it into 2 parts. You should listen to part 1 before listening to this... If you’re not a fan of Star Wars you could just skip this one. I’m recording it really for the people who’ve seen the film. Spoiler alert - I’m revealing lots of details about the film, so you should wait until you have seen the film before you listen to this. There is a script for most of what I’m saying on the episode page on my website so you can read along while listening, or just check for certain words and phrases that you’ll hear me use. If you’re listening in the LEP app, just click the link for the episdoe page in the episode description - that will allow you to read the script while you’re listening. After this episode there will be another one about Star Wars - and that will be a chat with my brother and my Dad that I recorded just after we all saw the film together about a week ago. I realise I’m devoting quite a lot of podcast time to this new film - but I just really enjoy talking about it right at this moment and as far as I’m concerned that’s enough of a reason for me to do this on the podcast. Don’t worry, I won’t be doing Star Wars forever of course and we’ll get back to other topics and themes on the podcast soon. OK then, so I expect the ones still listening to this are the Star Wars fans - so, let’s now continue where I left off. I was describing that moment when General Leia gets blasted into space when the bridge of her ship gets blown up. I said that this is quite a controversial scene... I admit that this scene is weird and we’ve never seen this before in a Star Wars film, but I really don’t think it’s as bad or ridiculous as some people think. So, Leia is hanging in space in zero gravity after the bridge of her ship has been blown up. She’s hanging in zero gravity. Apparently now we have zero gravity in space. Now - there is no consistency regarding the science in these films as we’ve seen already many times. This is not science fiction - there doesn’t need to be consistent, logical physics. This is a film series in which there are explosions in space, a huge planet sized space station that blows things up with lazers and a mystical force that allows people to control minds, lift objects and even project lightning from their fingers. In this particular scene. The science serves the characters, the action and the plot, and it can be bent this way and that. We are supposed to just suspend our disbelief and go with the vague rules of this universe. In this case, in this scene, there is zero gravity in space and so Leia is just hanging there. It seems that her skin maybe beginning to freeze, which is what would happen in space I suppose. She looks dead. But then her fingers twitch and her eyelids open. When I saw this I immediately thought - she’s using the force to keep herself alive. It’s a survival thing. Then she extends her arm and floats back towards the ship. Some people say she flies and they get very angry and upset saying “The force doesn’t let you fly”. Well - first of all, she’s not flying - she’s floating through zero gravity. It wouldn’t require much force power to do that, right? There’s no atmosphere or gravity so it just requires a little bit of force power to pull herself back to the ship. Also, we know that Leia is force sensitive but up until this point her power has just been to communicate with Luke through the force, to feel and sense things through the force and perhaps the suggestion that she’s been influencing events through the force for a while - like perhaps helping that bomber in the opening battle sequence, and influencing Kylo’s decision not to attack the fleet and so on. So she has the force but she’s never used it to her full potential. It’s not hard to imagine that in a crucial moment like this that she’d be capable of keeping herself alive and pulling herself back to the ship through zero gravity. We see this slightly odd, yet strangely beautiful image of Leia floating through space in the middle of a battle. It’s eerie and we’ve never seen anything like this before. Again, a lot of people hate this scene, but I think they’re being a bit hysterical. This has never happened before - it’s not consistent! Yep, well a lot of people complained about episode 7 because it contained nothing new. This is something new and it’s not completely far fetched. She’s not flying, she’s floating in zero gravity. Leia can’t fly ok? She’s not superwoman. It’s zero gravity. She’s just floating. So, I’m fine with this scene, but only fine with it. They could have done this differently. Other criticisms of this scene include the fact that Leia uses the force here just to save herself, other characters die and she could have saved them. Well, let’s face it - this film is all about breaking away from the old stuff and that means that some of the old characters have to die, and that includes someone like Admiral Akhbar- the guy who looks like a fish. I’m not that bothered that Akbar is gone. I liked him - I had the Admiral Akbar toy when I was a child, but it’s fine - we can let him go. These are tragic events. But maybe she could have used the force differently - like perhaps she could have somehow contained the explosion and held the bridge together - but that surely would have taken much more force strength and ability. I reckon keeping herself alive and then floating back to the ship is consistent with the fact that she’s never fully trained or developed her force abilities. This moment is also weird and spooky considering the fact that we all know that Carrie Fisher died just after making this film. Here in the film we see her character apparently die, but then her eyes open and she makes a miraculous recovery. I find this spooky and odd, but it doesn’t make me angry or make me want to throw my toys out of the pram and weep for the death of Star Wars. That’s a bit hysterical. Also, there’s a sense that in the negative reaction to this scene (and to quite a lot of the rest of the film) there’s a bit of sexism going on. Perhaps people just don’t like the idea of a woman flying. I know one person in particular who expressed this opinion - like “What, women can fly now?” “Women can do anything in movies now - this is ridiculous - it’s just rampant feminism”. Again, that seems like a slightly hysterical reaction. How many times have we seen flying men in movies? How many times are male heroes celebrated by seeing them fly through the air? Tons of times. Superman, Batman (alright he doesn’t fly but almost) Iron Man, Spiderman, Thor and tons of others. Nobody complains about flying men, it happens all the time and it’s not going to stop happening. Then we get one flying woman (who isn’t even flying) and some people throw their toys out of the pram and start complaining about rampant feminism. It’s not the end of the world. Some people might say - but it’s not consistent with the films. I’d say - yes it is consistent - she’s using her latent force abilities to briefly preserve her life and to pull herself back to the ship. You might disagree with me on this one - because it’s a really divisive moment in the film and I think a lot of people just couldn’t handle it and this was the moment when they just gave up on the film. If that’s you - write your thoughts in the comment section. What exactly is wrong with this moment? Put your thoughts into words. I’ve given you my point of view, why not give me yours? So, Leia gets back to the ship and is in a coma. She’s replaced by Vice Admiral Holdo. Ahch-To - Luke & Rey Words I used to describe Luke Skywalker: grisled haggard he looks like a wizened old hermit Luke chucks the lightsaber away. I was really shocked - gobsmacked. My jaw dropped at this moment. I was expecting him to refuse the lightsaber but I didn’t expect him to do that, but I went with it. I was shocked but I went with it. This is another one of those moments that’s a deal breaker for a lot of people. Some people see Luke throw the light sabre over his shoulder and they find it to be a fundamental problem. I can understand that. I think it seems a bit dismissive and casual, but this is where Luke is as a character in the story. He has been on this island for god knows how long and he’s utterly lost faith in the Jedi and in the so-called myth of Luke Skywalker. He doesn’t believe in these symbols any more and he has no time for people who expect him to live up to the legend of Luke Skywalker and that’s because at one point he believed in his own legend himself and as a result of that he thought he could do more than he could and this ended in complete failure. He couldn’t live up to all the expectations that he even had of himself. Some people say this is not consistent with Luke’s character, but I say - why not? Why can’t Luke have gone in this direction in the 30 years since Return of the Jedi? I found it really interesting that Luke had undergone such dramatic and traumatic changes since episode 6. Luke’s character in this film is about learning from failure, about being fallible, about struggling with expectations, about the legacy of the Jedi, about the heavy burden that is being the last jedi. In this film they could have made Luke a massively powerful hero who takes on the First Order armed only with his laser sword, but instead they went for a more complex study of a man who has failed, isolated himself and then slowly comes to terms with what it means to be a myth and how he can use this to do powerful things. Rey hangs around but Luke refuses to talk to her. We get some scenes which show Luke’s weird and eccentric lifestyle on the island. He fishes for massive fish in the sea, he lives among the porgs, he even drinks milk from the breast of some kind of weird sea mammal. Not directly from the breast, but he fills a flask with green milk that he gets from the breast of a weird creature that looks a bit like a walrus or something. He then drinks the milk and it drips down his beard, and he stares at Rey while doing this, looking pleased with himself. He’s being purposefully disgusting, and Rey thinks it’s weird. The green milk scene is another controversial one - controversial meaning that it has split opinions. Some people say this kind of thing has no place in Star Wars and that the humour didn’t really work. Personally I was fine with it. Both times I saw this in the cinema I was one of the only ones laughing at this moment. I don’t mind a bit of weird humour and I think Star Wars has always featured this kind of thing. For example - Jabba The Hutt is a weird creepy slug which licks its slimy lips in a really creepy way when looking at female characters, and there are plenty of other weird moments in the original trilogy. None of them are as blatant as this, but it’s not a complete departure from the world of Star Wars in my opinion. And just personally, I found it really funny. I also thought that this was Luke testing Rey a bit, in a similar way to how Yoda tested Luke in The Empire Strikes Back. When Luke first arrives on Degobah to meet Yoda (and he doesn’t know what Yoda looks like) Yoda meets him and makes him think he’s just a weird and annoying little creature. He pretends to fight with R2D2, steals Luke’s food and seems totally eccentric and strange. It’s only later that Yoda reveals himself to be a great master. It’s as if he needed to show Luke that you shouldn’t expect heroes to look like heroes and that true heroism is in your actions not in your appearance. Also this is a trope in a lot of kung fu movies from the 70s. The kung fu master appears as a sort of crazy fool who tests the patience of the main apprentice, giving him lots of annoying tests - and secretly he’s training the apprentice without him realising it. I like Luke’s grumpy, weird side in this and I found it to be a pleasant surprise. Anyway, Rey tries unsuccessfully to persuade Luke to join the Resistance and Luke hides in his cabin. Chewie smashes the door in. Luke finds out that Han is dead. This doesn’t change his mind, but maybe a little bit. He visits the Milennium Falcon - this is a big nostalgia moment. The first time we’ve seen Luke on the Falcon since Episode 5 maybe. He finds R2D2 and the moment they reunite is pretty amazing. Luke removes his hood in order to see him and it reminded me of when Obiwan removed his hood to look at R2D2 in Episode 4. Them reuniting made me well up...! I’m not ashamed to admit it. R2 is so important to Luke’s whole journey. He’s the whole reason he ended up on this adventure in the first place. R2 seems to try and persuade Luke to join the Resistance but Luke says “no way”. R2’s response is brilliant. He just plays the hologram of Princess Leia from Episode 4. Luke says “that was a cheap move” or something - and it’s a bit true, this is a pretty cheap way for R2 to persuade Luke, but also a fairly cheap way for the film to make any Star Wars fan feel emotional. R2D2 goes straight for the jugular (vein). This was always one of the most magical moments in the original film. When he was a frustrated farmboy dreaming of having adventures, this hologram of a beautiful princess asking for help completely captured his imagination and catapulted him on this journey into adventure, heroism, the force and self-discovery. The function of it here is that it brings Luke one step further towards remembering who he was and it is a stark contrast to who he has become now. But he’s still committed to the fact that he can’t be involved because he’s convinced that he’ll do more harm than good. In fact Luke has cut himself off from the force completely. He’s lost faith in the Jedi order. But you get the sense that he’s not a lost cause. He acts like he’s definitely against the idea of coming back, but we see that he is quite curious about Rey and there is still a spark of the old Luke Skywalker in there. At one point Rey seems to be called to a big old tree on the island, which I think is the original Jedi temple - or a force tree - I’m not sure of it’s significance completely but I expect it is mentioned in one of the books or something. The tree also houses the sacred Jedi texts. Rey seems drawn to this place and Luke notices this and follows her from a distance. That’s when he becomes curious about Rey - when he notices that she’s been drawn to this significant place and there’s an interesting exchange there where we see that Rey is confused and doesn’t know who she is. She doesn’t understand how she has her force sensitivity and who her parents are (she’s feeling a bit force sensitive). She’s desperately looking for answers to the questions of her identity while also trying to get Luke to come and help the Resistance. She seems lost and is desperate for guidance. No idea of how the time works here - all this is going on while the Resistance are battling against time up in space somewhere. Perhaps Ach-To runs on different time cycles. God knows. I don’t think it matters that much. Luke finally agrees to train Rey a bit. “Tomorrow at dawn - 3 lessons”. Again this is like a kung fu movie or a samurai movie or something, and that is really cool. 3 lessons about the Jedi and why they have to end. All the while, Rey and Kylo keep having weird force visions in which they are connected and they chat. It’s a bit like secret Skype or something. ForceTime. She berates him for killing Han Solo and says he’s a monster. He makes fun of the fact that she is looking for parental figures everywhere. They grow strangely close, mainly because they’re in similar situations. She’s desperate for guidance. He’s curious about her force abilities, and perhaps is working out if she is an enemy or perhaps a potential ally. They both are alienated from their so-called mentors. It’s weird and I didn’t know which way this would go. I expected that they’d join forces somehow and fight against both Snoke and Luke Skywalker, but I didn’t believe Luke Skywalker would be a real antagonist. Like I said before - there’s nothing like watching a Star Wars film when you don’t know what is going to happen next. Skywalker gives Rey some lessons in the force, but his intention is to break down her misconceptions about what it is, and what the Jedi really are. I could have had more of this to be honest, but then again in the original trilogy there wasn’t much detail about the force either. With the force I think the more you explain it, the less interesting it becomes. In The Phantom Menace there were these things called midiclorians, which are living organisms that actually carry the force - and it was possible to measure, scientifically, how much force a person had based on their midichlorian count - and because this is physical that this could be genetic and handed down through family connections. But midichloreans were never spoken of again because they took the magic out of the force. The version of the force we have here is back to how it was in Episode 4 - a mystical energy that binds the galaxy together. Rey doesn’t understand the force at all - thinking it’s just about controlling people’s thoughts and about moving rocks. This is the childish version of the force. Skywalker tells her it’s a lot more than that, giving a similar version that Obiwan gave to him in episode 4 - that it’s a neutral natural power that exists in the balance between everything. There are some funny moments where Luke makes fun of her and the way she misunderstands the nature of the force. Again, I’m not bothered by the jokey bits because this is Star Wars not Batman The Dark Knight. One funny moment is when he tells her to ‘reach out’ and she takes it literally. He means that she should reach out with her feelings, but she reaches out with her arm and he tickles it with a piece of grass saying “can you feel that? That’s the force!” and then he slaps her hand and says “that’s not how the force works” or something. Again, this reminds me of training sequences from kung fu movies which have some humour in them and involve the pupil getting it wrong and the master teasing them. Then Rey does reach out to the force with her feelings and Luke gives her a little lesson in what it is, and how to connect with it. He’s shocked that she immediately gets pulled towards the dark side, which is represented by a weird dark cave under the island. The rock under her cracks and she has a weird vision of being covered in water. Luke is shocked that Rey didn’t resist the dark side and he refuses to train her any more because the last time this happened it all went horribly wrong. He also attempts to explain to Rey how he has lost faith in the Jedi, how they were wrong and arrogant in assuming that they owned the force and how their legacy is failure. In the prequels the Jedi were blinded by their own arrogance - they didn’t see how a powerful sith was taking control of the senate right under their noses. Lack of vision etc. Again - more hubris. They were too sure of themselves and that’s why they failed. I find this pretty interesting. A lot of that is true, right? I’m not surprised that Luke has gone this way and I just find it interesting from a character point of view. Later, I’m not sure when, we get more info about what happened between Luke and Ben Solo (Kylo Ren). The story is told 3 times, and each time you get a slightly different version of events. First time is what Luke says to Rey. He tells her that he sensed growing darkness in Ben and he went to see him during the night to try and reason with him, but Ben flew into a rage and pulled down the building on top of his head, and then destroyed the temple. The second version of the story is what Kylo tells Rey during one of their ForceTime sessions. He tells her that Luke didn’t give the complete story and that Luke had come with his lightsabre to murder Kylo in his sleep. A lot of fans can’t handle this and just believe that Luke would never do this and that their childhood is ruined and all that, but it’s not the final version of events. The third version of the story is the true one. Luke explains to Rey that he had become aware of a growing darkness in Ben and that he struggled with what to do about it. He went to Ben’s room in the night to read Ben’s mind and was so shocked by the darkness inside him that in a moment of compulsion he ignited his lightsabre in order to kill him and rid the galaxy of another possible evil tyrant, but that as soon as he ignited his sabre, he regretted the decision and realised that this meant killing his nephew, one of his students in a cowardly way. So he immediately changed his mind when he realised what he was doing. I think this just gives Luke’s character more depth. Remember that he was the last jedi and perhaps he’d taken on too much in agreeing to train these young students. That’s a big job and perhaps he wasn’t really capable of doing it all on his own. Maybe Yoda and Obiwan’s force ghosts hadn’t visited him for ages so he hadn’t had guidance from them. As he said - he believed in his own legend and this was his failing. He took on too much and ultimately wasn’t able to handle the task of restarting the jedi order on his own, taking on his sister’s troubled son who was also incredibly powerful in the force but touched by the dark side and was already being manipulated and controlled by Snoke through the force. It was all too much for one guy. I think there is a lesson here and that is that success can be very dangerous - in this case Luke had success in the fact that he helped to redeem Darth Vader and kill the emperor. This can lead to a false sense of confidence which can lead ultimately to failure. There’s a lot of that in this film. It’s tragic, but at least there’s more depth to it than just gymnastic lightsabre duels and “being badass”. Anyway, Luke tells his story - of how he immediately changed his mind and was not going to kill Ben, but then Ben woke up and saw Luke standing over him with his ignited lightsabre and that’s when he pulled down the building on top of Luke and destroyed the temple. It’s a sort of misunderstanding that makes Ben think Luke really was going to kill him. In any case, Ben rejects Luke and he then probably gave his allegiance to Snoke. Luke again tells Rey to get off the island. He’s gone there to die, etc. This pushes Rey closer to Kylo who is the only one who seems to understand her. Will she turn to the dark side to be with him? Will he turn good? No idea. Not sure of the chronology here. At one point Rey visits the dark cave, like Luke does in Empire Strikes Back. This is a really cool and spooky sequence where she seems to see herself trapped in a time line or perhaps it’s just her reflection repeated again and again. She follows this line of reflections until she’s face to face with a mirror and she’s convinced that this will reveal the truth she’s been looking for - her parents. A dark figure approaches her in the mirror. Who is it? Luke? Snoke? Han? Leia? Another figure from Star Wars lore? In the end, she finds herself staring at her own reflection. What does this mean? I guess it means that she’s on her own and her parents just aren’t important. Also, at some point here, Luke decides to reconnect with the force. He sits on the stone altar on the clifftop and meditates. I think he makes a connection with Leia, who is in her coma. I think this is where Luke realises a lot of things - but it’s not actually shown in the film. By reconnecting with the force here, I think he gets strength from his renewed connection with Leia, realises that there is something he can do. Basically, by reconnecting with the force he realises his power and perhaps his hope again, or realises the importance of Rey. I’m not sure. Rey and Kylo have a Forcetime - again they’re getting closer to each other all the time. I think in this one Kylo is topless which kind of amps up the sexual tension between them. Rey seems to believe in Kylo more than she does in Luke at this point and she probably believes she can turn him to the light side of the force etc, but we still don’t really know how Kylo feels. He’s hard for us to read - he’s just blank and unreadable, which is a strength in terms of the acting performance. He could be a bit vulnerable, perhaps a bit lost, but possibly pure evil - we don’t really know! They actually touch, and when they do Luke bursts into Rey’s hut and is shocked to discover them in contact, and he destroys the hut and breaks the connection. Then there’s a sort of fight between Rey and Luke, where Rey demands to know if Luke really did try to kill Kylo, and she attacks him with her staff, and Luke defends himself with a stick and disarms her. To me this looks like he’s still training her. When he disarms her, she force grabs the blue lightsabre and appears to have beaten Luke who kind of falls to the ground and gives up - but if you watch closely we see his hand is raised and I’m sure that he could have summoned his green lightsabre whenever he wanted in order to defend himself. I think he let Rey get the better of him. This is when he confesses that he did momentarily contemplate killing Ben, but that he instantly changed his mind. So - just to set the record straight on this, Luke was not going to kill Ben in his sleep. The idea flashed across his mind when he saw that Snoke had turned him to the dark side, but he instantly changed his mind. I say that because a lot of the hardcore fans have lost faith in this film because they thought Luke was going to murder a child in his sleep - he wasn’t. Rey then decides to leave the island in order to go to Kylo because she believes she can turn him. Luke says “No, it won’t go the way you think”. It’s a bit like that moment in Empire Strikes Back when Luke goes to confront Vader but Yoda tells him he’s not ready yet. Rey is delivered to Kylo Ren in an escape pod from the Millenium Falcon and then we get one of my favourite moments in the film. Kylo puts Rey in handcuffs and on the way to Snoke’s throne room they have a conversation. She explains that she’s confident Kylo will turn to the light because she’s had a vision. But Kylo explains that he’s also had a vision that Rey will turn to the dark. I suspected that Kylo would turn to the light, because there was more evidence for it. I didn’t really believe Rey would turn to the dark side, but there were a few things that suggested that she could - e.g. she was drawn to the dark side during her vision while training with Luke. She is pretty impulsive and often strikes out in anger, it seems - and that’s often the way towards the dark side. Then the doors open and Rey meets Snoke for the first time. Meanwhile, Luke goes to destroy the Force Tree and the ancient Jedi texts. Yoda appears and stops him. It’s wonderful to see Yoda again. He’s not CGI Yoda, it’s puppet Yoda. They actually used the original mould from Return of the Jedi. It works. Basically, he tells Luke that this is all a lesson and that Luke is a good master because he is teaching Rey the value of failure. “The greatest teacher, failure is.” - he says. Apparently Yoda still hasn’t perfected his grammar, despite failing to speak it correctly for probably about 900 years or something. Anyway, it’s a good lesson and it brings some redemption to Luke - who feels like he’s a lost cause. Everyone has to fail and it’s your failures that help you to improve. Success brings over-confidence and arrogance sometimes, whereas failure and accepting your failures brings us opportunities to learn. It’s true for learning English too - our failures are great learning opportunities. We have to say something wrong a few times before we can say it correctly. Expecting to get everything right first time is just unrealistic. Accept failure as the best way to learn, and not something to be ashamed of, you can overcome your problems and learn to be really strong. Yoda then destroys the force tree and (apparently) the sacred Jedi texts, as if to say to Luke - yes, you’re right - let’s destroy the past and start again. Luke is shocked that Yoda has done this (and apparently force ghosts can summon lightning now in Star Wars - fair enough, we were looking for some new force abilities, right? Apparently force ghosts can interact with the real world now - ok, fine) The tree burns, containing the books - and Luke says “But the sacred jedi texts!” and Yoda says “Read them have you? Page turners, they are not.” I laughed out loud at this line. Yoda’s two lessons for Luke: Failures are valuable learning experiences. Students always grow beyond their masters. Back to Snoke’s room. Snoke reads Rey’s mind, plays around with her - she attempts to fight back several times - grabs her light sabre but snoke makes it fly around the room - she grabs Kylo’s light sabre and Snoke flings her around the room. He seems impressed with her tenacity and he actually says “such spunk!” which made me laugh, because… well the word “spunk”. Do you know what that means? It’s a bit rude. Here are the two definitions. Courage, bravery, strength of character. Semen (offensive) He means defintion 1, but still - it’s a bit creepy that Snoke gleefully talks about “spunk”. Snoke is a horrible, creepy old git. He’s also really arrogant and wealthy - he wears a gold robe a bit like Hugh Hefner the playboy guy. He’s horrible. But the CGI motion capture is brilliant. He looks really realistic. Good job Andy Serkis and the special effects team. Snoke then reads Rey’s mind. I think he was considering whether she could be turned to the dark side, perhaps to become his apprentice and replacement for Kylo. That’s often the way it goes - but he summarises that she’s too pure or can’t be turned or something. So, he decides that Kylo should kill her, perhaps to complete his training. Meanwhile Kylo looks at the situation quite blankly except for subtle reactions and the movement of his eyes. It reminds me of how Vader observed the Emperor when he was attempting to turn Luke to the dark side. We suspected that Vader was loyal in his heart to Luke. Similarly, I suspect that Kylo hates Snoke and feels resentment towards how manipulative he is, and we suspect that Kylo has feelings for Rey or at least believes that Rey might join him somehow. I wonder if this is a romantic feeling or a strategic one. Snoke orders Kylo to kill Rey, and we still don’t know what Kylo is thinking. Rey looks up at him and simply says “Ben” - appealing to his good side. At this point Snoke gets really carried away, proclaiming that he can see Kylo’s thoughts and that Kylo is turning his lightsabre and is going to ignite it in order to kill his true enemy. But secretly Kylo is using the force to turn Luke Skywalker’s lightsabre which is sitting on the table next to Snoke, and as Snoke is convinced that he’s seeing Kylo’s intentions to kill Rey, perhaps he’s not seeing it clearly and in fact Kylo ignites Luke’s lightsabre killing Snoke. I found this really surprising and satisfying. The look on Snoke’s face - he’s so shocked! It’s also a really well-directed sequence. The lightsabre stabs Snoke in the side and then we see the scene from Kylo’s point of view, and Kylo pulls the sabre towards him, cutting Snoke in half! The ignited sabre flies through the air and Rey’s hand comes up to grab it. Rey stands and for a moment Kylo and her face each other and we wonder whether Kylo is going to attack her, or what will happen... Then everything goes in slow motion as Rey and Kylo, are attacked by 8 Praetorian guards and they fight back to back on the same side against the guards. This is an absolutely wicked sequence. The guards are fantastic. They wear this weird red armour which appears to be able to deflect some lightsabre blows. They also have different weapons - swords, staffs, a sort of whip that becomes a sword. It all happens incredibly quickly and the screen is filled with several fights at the same time. Sparks fly, Rey screams and roars as she fights, Kylo’s fighting style is brutal and sketchy. It’s raw power. At one point the wall catches fire and in the middle of the fight the room starts buring down. One of the guards gets thrown into some kind of fan unit and gets chopped into pieces. It all happens incredibly quickly and intensely. Rey also has some good moves. Again - I don’t know how she learned to fight like this. Let’s just say that growing up on a rough junk planet like Jakku meant that she had to learn how to defend herself, add to that the fact that she’s obviously gifted with force abilities and has had some light sabre fighting experience now - she’s also brave and intelligent. The two of them manage to fight off the guards and defeat them, but it’s not easy. At one point it looks like they’ve been beaten. Kylo is unarmed, Rey is held by one of the guards, but she manages to get out of it by dropping her lightsabre, getting out of the guard’s grip and then catching the sabre again in mid air before dispatching the guard. Kylo is still being held by the last guard, who is kind of strangling him. Rey quickly throws her sabre to Kylo who catches it and ignites it instantly, sending the beam through the guards face, who drops away, dead. What I like about this moment is that Kylo catches the lightsabre, ignites it, lets the guard drop and steps forward and he never takes his eyes of Rey at any point, and never blinks. Then, still staring intensely at Rey he steps forward. Rey tells him there’s still time and that they can save the Resistance. She assumes he’s turned good, but he hasn’t. He tells Rey they should let the past die and start anew - kill Snoke, kill Skywalker, let the Resistance die. Rey is sort of heartbroken and just says “Ben, don’t do this”. He also tells her who her parents are - I guess he saw it in a vision or something. He says that they were junk traders who just sold her off as a slave for money and that now they’re dead and buried in the desert. “You’re nobody, nothing…” “but not to me”. He begs Rey to join her, but she’s heartbroken and won’t do it. She sees that Kylo is beyond redemption at this point. I think Kylo has crossed a line and he’s the new Snoke. All these changes of position happen really fast. Surely, this is the interesting part of this film - what is really going on in Kylo’s head? Will he go good or bad? In Return of the Jedi we have similar questions about Darth Vader and ultimately he turns good, but in this one Kylo doesn’t. He’s the bad guy. He wants to kill her friends and he’s being very manipulative. He might be lying about her parents, even though she says she’s always known deep down that they abandoned her. But maybe he’s lying or something. Perhaps we’ll see. Or perhaps her lineage isn’t important and it doesn't matter what your family connections are. Anyone can be strong in the force. She goes to grab Luke’s lightsaber from Kylo and it ends up suspended mid air between them as they both struggle to grab it. The lightsabre explodes. In the film this part of the story is told in parallel with the other parts which I haven’t mentioned yet - namely the Finn and Rose storyline and the Poe/Admiral Holdo storyline. Finn and Rose storyline. Finn is going to escape and find Rey. Rose stops him. They work out together (cheesily) that the hyperspace tracking can be stopped if they disarm it from the lead ship. Finn has intel on the location of the tracker and they work out that they can get in and disable it, and save the Resistance. It’s surely a suicide mission. Poe agrees, and they call Maz Kanata for info. Maz Kanata is a crap character, isn’t she? A sort of vague orange Yoda who isn’t as interesting as Yoda. A complex and contrived plot is set up where Finn and Rose have to meet a code breaker who can help them access Snoke’s ship (is it Snoke’s ship or another ship - not sure). So they head to Canto Bite. “The worst type of people” Just park on the beach - bad move. But these kids don’t really know what they’re doing. A bit like the Cantina Bar but everyone’s rich. Weird horse things on a racetrack, they’re looked after by slave kids. Rose hates the town. Little drunk creature putting coins inside BB8. They get caught and thrown in jail. Pretty rubbish. Then Benicio Del Toro’s character turns up in the film. He’s great. I’ve always liked him in films. He’s an “engaging screen presence” to quote Mark Kermode. He overhears them discussing their plan and says he can get them in the room on the FO ship. Somehow he has a way to pick the lock and get out, and with BB8’s help they get away, so do Finn and Rose who escape on the horses, which smash up the casino resort before being released into the forest. This is a bit cheesy and feels a bit like a “message” about animal cruelty. I love animals, so fair enough - but it’s a very Disney moment. Anyway, DJ turns up in a ship with BB8 and they get rescued, and the fly towards the FO ship for their mission, which is to go undercover and turn off the hyperspace tracking, while the Resistance are still running away from the FO and slowly running out of fuel. DJ is an interesting character. He’s one of those ones who exists in the moral grey area between the good and bad sides, a bit like Boba Fett and even Han Solo at the start of Episode 4. I think this gives some much needed moral ambiguity. Also, he shows us that the rich people on Canto Bite make their money making and selling weapons to the FO and the Resistance. This adds a bit of complexity to the whole “intergalactic war thing” which underpins this whole series of films, and just shows that there’s more to this than just good guys vs bad guys - there’s a whole industry behind these wars that makes some people really rich. I think for some fans this is a bit too political for Star Wars, which is ironic considering how politics were involved so much in the prequel films. They make it onto the Supremacy (I think) and go undercover. BB8 disguises himself as one of those little black droids - a “mouse” droid I think they’re called. He’s disguised as one of them by hiding under a black dustbin as far as I can see. Amazingly nobody really notices them, including Finn who surely is a famous traitor by now … I say nobody notices them, actually an evil black version of BB8 does notice them. I love this evil BB8. He’s actually called BB9-E and it’s interesting how just a few changes in design makes this little droid instantly evil looking. I think I heard Mark Hamill talking about this in an interview - just a few changes - make the droid black, with a different shaped head and it just screams “Nazi!” It does look like a nazi version of BB8. Also, they manage to endow him with a lot of menace and malice. His red eye narrows with suspicion when he sees Rose, Finn, DJ and BB8. Long story short - they get to the tracker and it turns out that DJ has set them up - he betrayed them and he betrays the whole Resistance and their plan to escape to Crait because the FO offered him loads of money. Finn gets angry and calls him a traitor I think, or says something like “They’re the bad guys” - and DJ says something along the lines of “Good guys, bad guys, what’s the difference. They blow you up today, you blow them up next time…” I find his cynicism and pragmatism to be refreshing and interesting in the context of this binary good guys vs bad guys conflict. This is a really enjoyable bit of ambiguity and I really hope we see Benicio Del Toro’s character again. Perhaps the most interesting moments in all of Star Wars are the moments when there’s moral ambiguity - like the character of Boba Fett who is only interested in self-preservation and money, or the moments when Luke Skywalker appears to drift towards the dark side slightly in order to achieve things - specifically when defeating Darth Vader, or when Anakin/Vader goes dark and then light at the end. These are the interesting moments and DJ is an example of that. So, Finn & Rose are caught, The Resistance are screwed… Some people complain that the Finn and Rose storyline doesn’t achieve anything. But that’s the whole point - it’s another lesson in failure. Sometimes characters fail in films - it’s boring if they just succeed every single time - and anyway the Resistance were always the underdogs and Finn and Rose were never going to succeed with this plan anyway - it’s was a suicide mission. They’re lucky that they got this far. Back to what’s happening with The Resistance fleet. Leia is in a coma, Holdo takes over. Poe disagrees with her strategy - which appears to be just to jump ship and escape the fleet. He thinks it won’t work and it’s cowardly. He attempts a mutiny but gets stunned by Leia who she comes back. She uses a blaster set to stun. We haven’t seen this since episode 4 - blue rings firing out, rather than red or green laser blasts. It turns out that Holdo’s plan is not to just escape the ship, but to evacuate to a nearby planet that they’ve been heading for. Poe wasn’t aware of this because he was demoted. They plan to escape to Crait where there’s an old rebel base. They can use that as a defensive fortress and can call for support from around the galaxy. Just as well really, because Finn and Rose’s mission has failed. Then we discover that DJ has told the FO about this plan to evacuate to Crait and the FO begin attacking the escape vehicles as they head towards Crait. The Resistance is screwed now. Finn and Rose’s mission to stop the hyperspace tracking has failed and now the FO know about the other plan to escape to Crait and are blowing up the escape transports. Also, at this moment it looks like Rey is about to be executed by Kylo Ren. Finn and Rose are about to be executed. Oh yeah and Captain Phasma has turned up too - apparently she didn’t die in Episode 7. She doesn’t really do much, except being Finn’s nemesis. Leia and the rest of the Resistance have boarded the escape transports to Crait, but Holdo stays with the main fleet, and when she realises that the escape transports are being attacked she suddenly decides to sacrifice herself and aims the Raddus at The Supremacy (Snoke’s ship) and goes into hyperspace. WOW - a really mind blowing moment and done really well because the Raddus enters hyperspace and flies at lightspeed through the Supremacy and a bunch of other FO ships causing massive damage and a huge explosion and it’s all done instantly and in total silence, followed by a really cool sound effect. Silence used to great effect. The explosion on The Supremacy gives Finn and Rose the chance to avoid being executed and they fight back against Captain Phasma and the storm troopers while the whole hangar bay explodes around them. There are tie fighters falling on the floor and blowing up, AT-AT walkers crashing here and there. In the midst of all this chaos, Finn and Phasma have a battle and Finn fights with a lot of spirit. Rose shoots Phasma but the blast deflects off her armour. Cool moment. Phasma appears to have the upper hand in the fight and knocks Finn into a lift shaft, but clearly Phasma hasn’t seen the Original Trilogy - we know that there are moving platforms that go up and down in these shafts and of course Finn hasn’t fallen to his death, he reappears and smashes Phasma in the face, cracking her mask. She says “You’ll always be scum” before falling into an explosion. I doubt that she’s dead. She’s bound to come back next time. “Rebel scum” - this is the default insult for Rebels or Resistance fighters it seems. Scum is a bit like a dirty layer that floats on the top of old water or something. It’s just a generic insult, but it was used once in Return of the Jedi when an imperial officer said it to Han Solo and it sounded cool - so now the word is used a lot. These films still trade a lot on nostalgia for the old films, and it works. Finn and Rose manage to escape the burning ship - how? They’re rescued by BB8 driving a AT-ST “scout walker” thing, which made me go “Yeah, right?!” out loud in the cinema when I first saw it. People complain that Rey’s character is too perfect and that she can do anything and that this is unrealistic and unfair and some sort of feminist agenda or something, but BB8 (and R2D2 for that matter) is also a perfect character who seems to be able to do anything. He takes out FO guards, he can pilot an AT-ST walker, he can get blown up and assemble himself again, he can fix any problem on an X-Wing - but nobody complains about that. OK, so now the storylines come together. The Resistance (Leia, Poe and the few remaining other people) make it to Crait and set up their base there. God knows why it takes the FO so long to attack them here, but it does. Maybe they needed a bit of time to set up all the awesome weaponry that they’re going to use to smash through this big door to this old Rebel base where The Resistance are hiding. Finn and Rose escape The Supremacy with BB8 and join the Resistance on Crait. The idea is that The Resistance can defend themselves here, call for help and then wait for the help to arrive. The thing is, no help comes. None of their allies out in space care. No Lando Calrissian or anyone like that - nobody’s coming to help them. So it’s about a couple of hundred REsistance members vs the FO with their huge AT-M6 walkers. They have trenches, with some defensive weapons and this huge reinforced door protecting them, and a few very sketchy looking ground fighters, and that’s it. The FO have a massive battering ram cannon which is “Death Star technology” - basically a smaller version of the Death Star’s big green laser that can blow up planets. This is what they’ll use to break through the door. The idea is that The Resistance need to somehow destroy the cannon if they stand a chance of surviving. Now, what about Rey. Last time we saw her she was locked in a tug of war with Kylo over Luke’s blue lightsabre, which caught in the middle between the two of them, explodes. Apparently Kylo was knocked out by the explosion and Rey managed to escape in Snoke’s personal ship, and she took the fragments of the light sabre with her. We see Snoke’s dead body, his tongue sticking out, lying on the floor. Also both his hands were severed when Kylo killed him - this is pretty neat because someone always gets their hand or hands removed in Star Wars films, in this case it was Snoke, but he also lost the whole top half of his body. I wonder if we’ll ever find out Snoke’s back story, but I guess we never learned The Emperor’s backstory in the original films, he was just a powerful old dark side user and that’s it. I think we probably knew more about him than Snoke though, and I admit that we could have used just a little bit more exposition about Snoke - just a bit of detail. I think the hardcore fans are very upset about this, because they spent 2 years coming up with very elaborate theories about his origin - like, he’s Mace Windu, or he’s Darth Plageius (The Emperor’s old master). It seems he’s not that important, and anyway we don’t need an origin story for everyone, do we? I expect there will be a book about him coming out or whatever. Then General Hux comes into the room and can’t believe what he’s seeing - Snoke is dead, his tongue sticking out and everything. Kylo is still unconscious and Hux actually goes for his gun - he would have killed Kylo in his sleep probably - because they don’t like each other and Hux would probably like to take control of the FO, but Kylo wakes up. They argue and then Kylo force chokes Hux, which is very reminiscent of Darth Vader. Hux capitulates and calls Kylo “Supreme Leader” - “The Supreme Leader is dead - long live The Supreme Leader!” So, Kylo is in charge of the FO now. So, the confrontation on Crait. The FO approach the base with the big gun. The Resistance launch a counter attack with these beaten up old speeder things. There’s almost no way they can win. The Millennium Falcon turns up at the last minute and helps out by making all the Tie Fighters chase it. This is another big emotional moment, when the Falcon turns up to save the day - or save that particular moment anyway - the music swells (John Williams’ score is brilliant again) - there are some stunning visuals as the Falcon is chased by Tie Fighters through these crystal caves and tunnels under the surface of Crait. But ultimately, the Resistance mission to destroy the battering ram cannon can’t win and Poe calls it off. This shows us that he’s learned something about leadership and strategy from the beginning of the film. But Finn doesn’t want to give up and he’s about to sacrifice himself for the Resistance by flying his ship into the cannon in a suicide mission. I was convinced he was going to do it, but at the last minute Rose crashes into him and saves him. This is a really cheesy moment I have to say. First of all, you can see from the wide shots as Finn is flying that Rose is nowhere near him - but again, this is a bit like that moment with the detonator button that gets caught by Rose’s sister at the start of the film - movies often break the rules of physics like this - so I’m willing to let it slide. And then there’s the moment where after Rose saves Finn she gives a little speech saying “We don’t do this to destroy the things we hate, we do it to protect the ones we love,” and then she kisses him. So this is a slightly forced romantic moment first of all, but the sentiment is nice. We should protect the things we love rather than destroy the things we hate - and it’s all sweet and good and nice, but I thought about a moment from Episode 3 - a crucial moment when Anakin turns to the dark side. He decides to join Emperor Palpatine precisely because he thinks this is how he’s going to save the one he loves - Padme. He is seduced by the dark side because he wants to prevent Padme from dying. So, it’s all about point of view isn’t it. Protecting what you love, destroying what you hate - they’re sort of two sides of the same coin aren’t they? Still, I think the basic message is nice - love conquers hate. I do agree with that. Be careful of doing things for hateful reasons. We should be motivated by love, basically. But isn’t this a slightly selfish thing for Rose to do? She stopped Finn from potentially saving the entire Resistance just because she personally loves him. But maybe The Resistance were screwed anyway. I think the point is - we shouldn’t think about this toooooo much. We shouldn’t expect Star Wars to be this perfect flawless thing. As I said before, I think the good things in this film outweigh the bad things But then again - if you’re angry about this Star Wars film, that’s fine - it’s up to you. I’m not going to tell you you’re wrong. Everyone has their own subjective reaction to the film. So it looks like The Resistance are screwed then. Somehow Finn manages to fly back to the base or perhaps even drag Rose back there - I’m not sure how, but I dunno, maybe he used some of those trenches or something, or maybe one of the crashed speeders still worked. Leia looks defeated. She says that hope is lost. But then Luke Skywalker turns up. There’s an emotional moment when he speaks to Leia - they agree that Kylo wasn’t Luke’s fault, and Luke comforts Leia by giving her a memento of Han Solo - a pair of dice that used to hang in the Millenium Falcon. Luke then goes out to face the First Order armed with his Light Sabre. When I saw this I was really excited and yet didn’t know what to expect. Luke said it himself that he couldn’t face the entire FO armed only with a laser sword. Kylo, in his command ship, orders everyone to fire on Luke, using all their weapons. The AT-M6 walkers all fire on Luke. Kylo is enraged - shouting for more more more! This really is overkill. There’s just a huge cloud of red dust where the lasers are firing. Hux says “that’s enough” and the guns stop. Kylo slumps in a seat. He should be satisfied, but he’s not. He’ll probably never be satisfied. We’re all thinking - surely Luke isn’t dead! And of course he isn’t. He steps out of the cloud of red dust, unscathed. He looks up at Kylo’s ship and even brushes his shoulder dismissively, which is pretty cool. There’s something strange about Luke. He looks younger. His beard and hair are shorter. He has no dust on him. Kylo is furious again and instructs his soldiers to take him down to the surface to face Luke. Kylo says “I suppose you’ve come here to save my soul” Luke: No. This was awesome, I can’t really explain why. Also, Mark Hamill in this film is absolutely brilliant. He’s really developed as an actor since the original trilogy. He ignites his light sabre - and it’s the blue one. Weird, I thought the blue one got split in two when Kylo and Rey were fighting earlier. Kylo doesn’t seem to notice this because he’s in a rage. He ignites his crackling red light sabre. I love Kylo’s brutal style and the way he stands sort of hunched over. Luke looks really cool in his classic Jedi clothing. Kylo runs at Luke and attacks him but Luke manages to avoid all his attacks. He does some pretty cool moves where he kind of rolls out of the way, making Kylo really angry. This is not the epic gymnastic light sabre combat from the prequels. This is a lot more about the drama between the two characters. There’s a lot more emotion and feeling in this than in watching Anakin and Obiwan jumping from object to object swinging their lightsabres again and again until you’re emotionally uninvested in the action. This is much more like a Japanese samurai movie, where the swordplay is brief but intense. In fact Luke looks a lot like a samurai in this scene and that is fantastic. So atmospheric and powerful. An interesting detail in this fight is that Kylo’s feet leave red marks on the floor where the salt gets disturbed, but Luke’s feet make no impressions on the floor at all. Apparently you can also see salt particles falling from Kylo during the fight, but nothing falling from Luke. Only later do we realise that Luke isn’t really there at all - he’s doing a force projection from Ahch-to and it’s all part of a plan to mentally defeat Kylo while giving the remaining members of the Resistance a chance to escape. Luke tells Kylo - “today the Resistance is reborn and you can never defeat me.” He also does some Obiwan Kenobi stuff to him, saying “If you strike me down in anger I’ll always be with you, just like your father.” That’s got to hurt! Kylo angrily charges at him and swipes his lightsabre at Luke but the blade passes straight through his body. At the time I was thinking - wow, has Luke been hiding his power all this time? Is he immune to lightsabres? Then I thought, oh wow he’s a force ghost! Then it’s revealed that the real Luke is meditating on a rock in Ach-to. This whole thing is a force projection! Luke then says to Kylo - “see you around kid.” and disappears. That’s a Han Solo quote too! I think what this means is that Luke is going to haunt Kylo as a force ghost - he’s always going to be there and Kylo will never have peace, he’ll always be reminded of how he murdered his own father. Then Luke disappears and Kylo is in a rage again. What I like about this: We don’t get a big light sabre duel, but that makes a change - at least we have some really interesting character-based interaction. Luke manages to teach Kylo a lesson without using violence. He only uses defence. He defeats Kylo mentally. He sacrifices himself to save the Resistance. He shows Rey that the force isn’t just about lifting rocks, controlling people’s actions or being really good with a lightsabre - it’s also about introspection and peace. Also, I like the fact that in the midst of all this fighting, explosions - Luke has learned how to win a battle without using violence. In fact, I respect Luke’s decision to just go on an island to live like a hermit. At least he’s decided that he’s fed up with the incessant fighting and war. He’s perhaps the only character to say that he’s had enough of the fighting - and isn’t this a sort of logical progression of what he learned while facing the emperor in Episode 6. He threw his lightsabre away and refused to fight or give in to his anger because he is a Jedi. Don’t blame Luke for choosing to go to that island and for feeling like a failure - he was actually just trying his best to prevent any further catastrophe. This feels like the true way of the Jedi - from a certain point of view. Also, he’s demonstrating incredible force power by doing this projection. This is something new that we haven’t seen before. Again, some people are pissed off with this saying “That’s not how the force works!” but honestly I’m glad that we’re seeing some new force powers in this film. It’s about time we had some slightly new things. By doing this, Luke also manages to create the myth of Luke Skywalker, which will no-doubt be told again and again. He’s accepted his place as a myth and how important and powerful this can be as a way of inspiring new generations to have hope. This is beautiful. Luke has always been a symbol of hope, but he’s a fallible human who couldn’t always live up to his own myth, but he manages at the end to do it in his own way according to how he understands the light side of the force - using defence not attack, without using violence, fighting a mental battle. Then on Ach-To we see Luke collapse from the strain of doing this massive force projection. He climbs back up onto the rock and stares out across the ocean at the sunset, and it’s two suns. This made me cry! I couldn’t help it. It just took me straight back to the moment in Episode 4 when Luke was not much more than a boy staring across the desert at the dual sunset - full of aspiration and dreaming of adventure, and that’s how he ends his life. I can’t put it into words really, but this got me right in the feelings. It’s pretty ridiculous I know, but there it is. Luke then disappears in the same way Obiwan did and Yoda did. He becomes one with the force. I guess this means that he’ll be back as a force ghost in episode 9. Good - I really like Mark Hamill and I hope to see more from him. Meanwhile, the last remaining members of the Resistance have worked out that there must be a way to get out through the back of the caves by following the crystal foxes that live there. There’s quite a magical moment where one of the beautiful crystal foxes leads them to a gap at the back, but it’s filled with boulders. Rey is on the other side - she’s used the tracking device to follow their position from the surface, in the Falcon with Chewie. She works out that the pile of boulders is blocking them from escaping and she’s going to need to use the force to move them all. This is a bit ironic because earlier in the film Luke told her that the force isn’t about lifting rocks! But apparently sometimes it is! Of course she manages to lift all the rocks, freeing the last remaining members of the Resistance and they escape in the Falcon. There must be just about 10 people left! But Leia says they have all they need to start again. They’re the spark that will light the fire to burn the First Order down, etc. We see also that Rey has managed to keep the sacred jedi texts - they’re in a drawer on the falcon. So I suppose this means she can learn the ways of the Jedi properly and maybe she’ll get some help from Luke’s force ghost. Kylo and Rey have one more force vision before the Falcon leaves. They stare at each other and Rey closes the door - signifying that she’s closing herself off from him, I suppose. But surely the interesting thing going forward will be their relationship. Will she be able to turn him back to the light, or defeat him somehow? Will Kylo turn her to the dark somehow? What’s going to happen to Kylo? I quite like the idea that he’ll be haunted by Luke - a bit like the way Macbeth is haunted by his friend Banquo in the Shakespeare play Macbeth. In the final scene of the film we see some of the slave kids on Canto Bight - one of them is telling the others the legend of Luke Skywalker - him standing up against the entire First Order. It reminds me of how C3P0 tells the Ewoks the story of the rebellion. The other children are enthralled by the story and seem genuinely inspired. This shows that the legend of Luke Skywalker gives hope to the next generation. Then the kids are told off by their cruel slave owner boss type guy and one of the kids goes out to sweep the yard. He grabs the broom using a force pull - showing that he is force sensitive, and then he looks up at the stars and sees a distant spacecraft fly across the sky. The End! I suppose this scene means that: Anyone can be strong in the force - you don’t have to be part of a specific bloodline Luke’s legend is an inspiration to the poor, lost or forgotten people The Resistance is not dead and there’s still hope left in the galaxy That’s a nice message isn’t it? So in summary, I found The Last Jedi to be bold in the way it refuses to pander to the fan theories and expectations, brave in the way it pushes the saga forwards by doing some new things and letting some old things die, nuanced in the way it allowed the characters to develop in complex and quite flawed ways, fun in how it included some pretty weird comic moments and just awesome in the way it dealt with several key moments of action that were fuelled more by emotion than by technical skill. I think it’s an intelligent film, a surprising film, it’s one of my favourite Star Wars episodes and I’m looking forward to seeing it again so I can pick up on some more of the subtle details that made it enjoyable. I have no idea how episode 9 is going to carry on - and I like that feeling. Apparently JJ Abrams is going to conclude the saga by directing episode 9. JJ is obviously a very competent filmmaker and someone who understands the core appeal of Star Wars but I’m also a little bit worried because JJ has an approach to making films that involves posing lots of mysterious open ended questions rather than by providing satisfying resolutions. Think of Lost, the TV show - it was brilliant at setting up lots of questions and mysteries that kept the audience guessing, but none of those questions and mysteries were adequately explained in the end. I just hope that episode 9 can at least bring some resolution to the story, rather than just leaving it all open to the interpretations of the slightly unhinged fanbase. I look forward to reading your opinions if you have them. Sign up to LEP Premium on Acast+ https://plus.acast.com/s/teacherluke. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Talking about the new Star Wars film including the audience reaction, English accents you can hear in Star Wars, and a run-through of the plot with my thoughts about the events and characters. Plot spoilers throughout the episode! Transcript available (below). Episode page: https://wp.me/p4IuUx-87f  italki offer: http://www.teacherluke.co.uk/talk  Transcript (95% complete) This episode is all about Star Wars: The Last Jedi. Some of this stuff that I’m saying is scripted, some parts are not - but if you want to read along with me while I’m talking, which can be a great way to work on your English, see specific phrases I’m using and so on - if you want to read along with me, check out the page for this episode on my website. In fact there will be two episodes about Star Wars. This one, which is just me talking about the film, going through the plot, giving my thoughts and discussing the audience reactions to the film, and also the next one, which will be a conversation about the film with my brother and my dad. We went to see the film together while they were here at Christmas time and afterwards I managed to record a conversation with the them and you can hear their reactions and some general rambling about it - that’ll be in the next episode. So, at least 2 episodes about Star Wars. I was wondering if I should devote so much time to this, especially considering that some of you probably aren’t into Star Wars at all. Then I thought to myself - “Well, how do I choose my topics when I know that I can’t please everyone?” Often the deciding factor is - do I want to talk about it myself? Would I want to listen to it? The answer to those questions is yes. When I came out of the cinema in December having just seen this film I just wanted to hear other people’s comments about the film, and I looked for podcasts about it and youtube videos and stuff, and if I was learning English I would definitely like to hear someone talking about this film in English. Certainly for my ideal learning French podcast I would want to hear someone discussing the film in some depth in clear French - I am still yet to find this elusive perfect French version of Luke’s English podcast! And also, you know what? I just really want to talk about Star Wars for a while just because it pleases me to do it. So there you go, that’s my justification for doing these episodes. SPOILERS There are spoilers for the film throughout this episode - so if you haven’t seen The Last Jedi yet, you might want to wait before you listen to this. I’m pretty sure the film has been out for a while in most places. I understand that it came out in China on 5 January - a bit later than in other countries. So I think there’s been enough time now for me to do some spoilers. If you’re not a fan of Star Wars (which is totally fine of course), I understand that this might not be for you. I don’t expect everyone to be into Star Wars - it’s just something I’ve always enjoyed since childhood. So if you’re just not a Star Wars fan - I totally understand, but you’ll just have to put up with an episode or two about Star Wars this time, or you can just skip them - it’s totally up to you. If you want to listen to something else from me, like perhaps an episode about vocabulary, or an episode with various jokes, an episode with a mystery adventure story or an episode with grammar and pronunciation questions answered - let me remind you that you can download the LEP App completely free and there you will find at least 7 exclusive app-only episodes that deal with those things specifically. Just check out the app store, download the LEP app, check the App-Only Episodes category and away you go. And of course you have the entire episode archive there which you can peruse at your leisure. But for this one and the next one, it’s all about Star Wars - and if you are a fan, I hope you will enjoy being immersed in the world of Star Wars The Last Jedi for a couple of episodes. Let me say again very clearly there will be spoilers coming as I am going to talk about exactly what happens in The Last Jedi in quite a lot of detail. Please don’t let me spoil this film for you - even if you’re keen to listen to this new episode I strongly recommend that you wait until you’ve seen the film first. So, perhaps the people I have left with me now are: Fans of Star Wars who have already seen the film. And maybe some other LEPsters who might not be big fans of Star Wars but are just happy to listen to me talking about it, even if it includes plot spoilers. I should also say that I might lose some more of you when I say that I really liked Star Wars The Last Jedi - not everything, but on the whole I really enjoyed the film and I feel like the good things definitely outweigh the bad things. I have seen it twice now, and so there’s always a chance that I might change my opinion after seeing it a third time, but I don’t think so. I said I might lose some more of you when I say that I enjoyed this film and that is because the response to this film has been very divided. Plenty of people like it a lot but having said that plenty of people dislike and even hate this film. This reaction mainly comes from so-called “hardcore fans” online who are posting very negative reviews on YouTube as well as on film review websites like IMDB and Rotten Tomatoes. But I’m quite a hardcore fan and I loved it. In terms of my fandom, here is a summary. I grew up with the films. Watched the original trilogy over and over again throughout my life. Watched ROTJ in the cinema. As a teenager I used to have lots of fun speculating about the backstory of certain characters and so on. As a child I used to think I was Luke Skywalker, as I’ve said in previous episodes. I was quite obsessive about it growing up. In the 90s and 2000s I saw the prequel films and was disappointed by them. I found them to be badly written and directed, with pretty bland characters and too much CGI. Not everything was bad about the prequels - I like the Darth Maul scenes, the pod-race, the scenes between Obi Wan Kenobi and Jango Fett but that might be it I think. I found the rest of it to be more like a Saturday morning cartoon in places. More recently I saw reviews of the prequel trilogy on YouTube that cemented my opinion of those films as being rubbish. I’m talking about Mr Plinkett’s reviews, by RedLetterMedia. Very astute criticisms of the prequels, with some twisted humour thrown in. I wouldn’t go so far as to say that the prequel trilogy “ruined my childhood” as some fans have said (and are also saying about The Last Jedi). I think if your childhood can be ruined by a fantasy film that you watch as an adult, then perhaps your childhood was already quite flimsy in the first place. What this phrase really means is that the films spoil the Star Wars franchise, which was such a key part of your upbringing… Anyway, the prequels didn’t ruin my childhood but they did disappoint me a bit. Then it was announced that more Star Wars movies would be released, after Lucasfilm was taken over by Disney. 2 years ago The Force Awakens was released and I really enjoyed it, even if it was very derivative of the original Star Wars films (episode 4). It basically copied the plot of Episode 4 - but I’m alright with that. I thought it was done in a way that was far closer to the original spirit and aesthetic of Star Wars and that was really pleasing. Also they introduced a few new characters that was interesting. Also, in 2015 Rogue One was released - a film set just before Episode 4. This was a sort of war movie inspired episode that didn’t have any Jedi or lightsabers, but told the story of how the rebels managed to get the plans to destroy the Death Star. I really enjoyed that too! It feels like Star Wars is good again. I love reading about fan theories and speculations on forums (like Star Wars Leaks on Reddit) and I do watch lots of dumb YouTube speculation videos about Star Wars, and there were a lot of them released onto YouTube before The Last Jedi came out. But I like to think that I have my fandom under control. I love the world of Star Wars and I feel invested in the stories, but I try not to expect too much from the films. I remember the prequel trilogy - I used to get my hopes up really high before each film was released and I was disappointed each time. Also, I know that your enjoyment of these films is largely a question of taste and a question of subjective experience. What makes a bad film for some people makes a good film for others. The relationship between the fans of Star Wars and the films is very complicated. A lot of people feel very personally invested in this franchise. The fans feel that they own the franchise or that it represents their own personal life, childhood, dreams, imagination and everything. It’s strange how Star Wars can do that. When it is at its best it manages to touch people in the most personal and profound ways. Also, the level of speculation and theorising among the fans has created such massive expectation from the films that it’s almost impossible to please everyone now, and when a film fails to meet people’s specific vision for the story and characters it can feel like a very personal disappointment. But I think some fans are expecting too much from Star Wars now. They’ve put it on a pedestal - which is a way of saying that they expect it to be perfect and to live up to their highest expectations all the time. But it’s just a movie franchise and to an extent it’s a children’s movie franchise. I think some people just need to chill out a bit and stop expecting so much from the films. Saying that, there is bound to be someone out there listening to me who disagrees, who says I’m being an apologist, who says there’s no excuse for what they’ve done. When I read some of the negative reactions, I honestly think - “did we see the same film?” Some people are so angry! It makes me wonder if perhaps there are other things going on, like that these people are not just angry with the film, but they’re angry with what they see as a certain political agenda being expressed through the film. This probably feeds into the ongoing saga of the war between right-wing people (who don’t say they’re right wing) and what they describe as liberal social justice warriors. I see these arguments all the time online in comments sections and so on. The angry ones (whatever their political position) get furious when there’s a suggestion that a film is being used to promote feminism, or to promote ethnic diversity or perhaps animal welfare or environmental issues. A hint of this in a film makes some people really mad. There’s a bit of this in The Last Jedi - some strong female characters, black, asian and hispanic actors in prominent roles, a storyline about animal cruelty… Part of the hatred aimed at SW is fuelled by this stuff. But also, some people don’t like it because they think it’s bad storytelling, and because of the way some characters are dealt with - particularly Luke Skywalker. A lot of people can’t stand the way he is represented in the film. Added to that, there’s the humour. Some people have really taken against the moments of humour which they think don’t fit in with the tone of the film as a whole or the whole franchise in general. I’m talking there about some reasons why the film is disliked by some people - but not everyone of course. Plenty of people like or love this film too although it’s hard to tell what the overall audience reaction has been. I think it’s fair to say that the film is dividing people, particularly the more serious fans. I don’t know what you thought of The Last Jedi. There are some pretty strong feelings out there. You might disagree with me when I say I like it, but I hope you hear me out on this. Of course the film is not 100% perfect or anything but generally I think there is a great deal to be enjoyed about it. Story recap I’d like to now go through the film from start to finish, describe what happens and give my thoughts on each part. You remember the numbers don’t you? OT - Original Trilogy (4, 5, 6) PT - Prequel Trilogy (1, 2, 3) ST - Sequel Trilogy (7, 8, 9) Also Rogue One that fits in before episode 4. The Force Awakens The Resistance are searching for Luke Skywalker because they need his help. There’s a missing piece of a map hidden inside the droid BB8. A scavenger girl called Rey finds the droid. Han Solo and Princess Leia had a son who turned to the dark side. The Last Jedi - Opening Crawl How did it feel in the cinema at this point? I was trying to keep my expectations realistic. I thought - if I expect too much from this I might be disappointed. It’s just a film and ultimately it’s just a space fantasy. It seems silly to invest so much into it. Having said that, I was really looking forward to getting stuck into some new Star Wars and I had no idea what was coming. The Lucasfilm logo appeared and I was really trying to just stay calm but I have to admit it was difficult. I felt really nervous. Star Wars logo + music and I was already getting chills and started welling up. I know it’s a bit pathetic or something, but there it is. Somehow these films just take me directly back to my childhood. It’s like stepping back in time and going straight back to my living room when I was 7 years old and my Dad was younger than I am now and I’d never had any real experiences, I’d never left home, never had my heart broken, never fallen in love… I was a bit emotional during this film. I just can’t help it. Also bear in mind that I was watching this while fully expecting my wife to give birth to our baby at any moment. I literally had my phone in my hand and every single vibration I expected was a text from my wife saying that her water had broken. Anyway, I was feeling very emotionally susceptible while watching the film, which is fine - I’m in touch with my feelings, there’s nothing wrong with that, is there? The opening crawl started and it’s impossible not to get excited by this, if you’re a Star Wars fan. For some reason I can never really read it and take it in. Episode VIII THE LAST JEDI The FIRST ORDER reigns. Having decimated the peaceful Republic, Supreme Leader Snoke now deploys his merciless legions to seize military control of the galaxy. Only General Leia Organa's band of RESISTANCE fighters stand against the rising tyranny, certain that Jedi Master Luke Skywalker will return and restore a spark of hope to the fight. But the Resistance has been exposed. As the First Order speeds toward the Rebel base, the brave heroes mount a desperate escape.... The First Order are now in complete control of the galaxy after having blown up the republic with Starkiller Base. The Resistance are on the run, escaping from their base. The First Order are closing in, with vastly superior weaponry, ships, and so on. They blow up the base as remaining resistance ships escape, but they’re being pursued by a First Order fleet. In an effective but costly counterattack led by Poe Dameron, Resistance fighters manage to destroy a First Order dreadnought. One of the FO officers is played by Ade Edmondson, and all the Brits are delighted. Admiral Hux is played by Domhnall Gleeson, Irish actor. He really “hams it up”. First bit of controversial humour. “Holding for Admiral Hugs” etc. FO officers are pretty incompetent and Gleeson plays a lot of his scenes for laughs - it’s a completely over the top performance. Old fashioned RP, and general frothing at the mouth. A note about accents: In SW almost all the Imperial Officers have old fashioned heightened RP accents. This is because this is the accent that Americans associate with an evil old empire - because the British Empire was an evil old empire for the USA. This association still exists - more so in the 70s but still today. Also, it means stuffy formality. Obi Wan Kenobi also had an old school English accent, but that was to suggest that he came from an era that no longer exists - the old republic. It just fits the character. His British accent gives him class, dignity and suggests that he is more than just a “crazy old man”. Vader also had a bit of an RP British accent, but this gradually changed into a trans-atlantic American accent. Still old fashioned and formal in tone, but a bit American. That’s just because the voice actor - James Earl Jones - was a classically trained American actor. These great actors really brought a lot of weight and class to the original films and this was repeated in the prequel trilogy. They chose more well trained British actors because they have class. This includes people like Terence Stamp. In this sequel trilogy (ST), accents are also used to create certain feelings and associations with the characters. The FO officers still speak in old fashioned RP in order to give that sense of old empire (think of the naval officers in Pirates of the Caribbean who speak in a similarly old fashioned way). Supreme Leader Snoke speaks in formal British RP. We don’t know much about him (and I’ll come to that in a bit) but basically he’s a bit like the Emperor - probably very old and powerful and he is the Supreme Leader of the First Order so of course he has the old fashioned English RP accent. Most of the other characters speak American English though, and this seems to be the default accent for “ordinary person” in the Star Wars universe. This includes Han Solo - a kind of cowboy smuggler flyboy kind of guy, and Luke Skywalker- just a farmer from a desert planet. Nobody special (or at least that is the background he has come from). Also, most of the new characters speak with standard American accents - Finn is just an ordinary guy - quite a low level person since he used to be just a stormtrooper and he speaks with an American accent, although the actor is actually from Peckham in South London. Apparently he auditioned in his normal voice but it just didn’t feel right. He auditioned in an American accent and it just fit the character better. Poe Dameron also has a standard American accent. As I said - ordinary people, rebels, not part of the empire. But then there’s Rey. She speaks with quite a posh English accent, although not in the formal way that the FO officers speak. She is definitely just a normal person too, and according to this film she is nobody special (unless this is just a trick and in episode 9 they will reveal something special about her, but I don’t think so - again, more on this later). So why does she have this English RP accent? I don’t really know! Perhaps the actress doesn’t do a very good American accent and this is just her normal voice. Perhaps they just wanted to arouse our interest in this character by giving her a distinctive and classy voice, like Obi Wan Kenobi. The fans certainly took this point as a big clue about her origins. A lot of people believed that because she is force sensitive and speaks in a posh English accent that she must be related to other force users with this accent like Obi Wan Kenobi or perhaps even Emperor Palpatine. There are other details that support these fan theories. But apparently her accent doesn’t mean this. But still, it’s interesting to note that although she grew up on an insignificant planet and lived as a scavenger for all her life, she still speaks with quite a posh English accent, when all the people around her on her home planet of Jakku don’t have the same accent. Her slave owner for example (because in TFA she appears to be basically a slave or at least someone who works for food rations rat