➡ LEARN ENGLISH ➡ 🔴 LIVE FROM ENGLAND and join the CHAT / MONDAY 23rd October 2023

Welcome, everybody,

to my lovely live stream.

It's nice to have you here on Monday.

It seems very strange to be here, but we're here.

We are.

We are together again.

Live on YouTube.

How are you today?

Here we are.

Welcome to my underground studio

deep under the town of Much Wenlock.

Do you like my new studio?

I think it's lovely, actually.

Here we go, then. Hi, everybody.

You know what's coming next?

This is Mr. Duncan in England.

That's me, by the way, for those wondering who that strange man is talking to them at the moment

on your computer device, maybe your mobile phone,

perhaps your tablet, or even your watch.

Apparently now you can even watch videos

on your smartwatch, which I find a little strange because.

Well, first of all, the image would be very small.

So what's the point,

really, when you have your smart phone nearby?

My name is Duncan.

For those wondering, I am an English teacher.

I have been here on YouTube for ever such a long time.

In fact, this year I'm celebrating 17 years on YouTube.

Can you believe it?

17 years?

Not two months.

Not six weeks.

Not 13 hours, but 17 years.

Way back in 2006, whilst I was still living in China,

I started my YouTube channel way back then.

And here I am still doing it now.

Next week, next Tuesday, we are of course

celebrating the actual date, the 31st of October.

So I thought leading up to that particular date

I thought we would do something different.

Doing livestreams every day.

How does that sound?

Does that tickle your fancy?

Whoo!

Now, that is an interesting expression we often use in English.

We use it quite often when something interests us.

Or maybe something that makes you go,

I would

like to have a try of that or something.

You like the sound of it

tickles your fancy.

It's a great expression and it is one of many

that we use in the English language.

So here we are then. It's very nice to see you here.

Lots of people on the live chat.

We have Vitus.

Hello, Vitus.

Also, we have Claudia.

Hello to Claudia.

I hope your father is feeling better today.

I know you were taking care of him yesterday,

so I know you couldn't join in yesterday.

But I do understand when you have other things to do.

I do understand also, Beatrice.

Are you still up in the mountains?

Are you still there?

Beatrice.

Hello. Also to you.

Luis Méndez is here as well.

So nice to see so many people here today on the livestream.

Who else is here?

We also have Moustafa. Hello to you as well.

We have Duong Nguyen. Di.

Hello to you.

I have a feeling you might be watching in Vietnam.

We have a very interesting subject to talk about today.

It's an interesting question.

In fact, I think I'm sure

there was a song many years ago that went

if I rolled into the world,

I would create a really nice situation

for everyone around and every everything would be lovely.

Free candy every Wednesday, I think.

So if I ruled the world. What about you?

What would you do if you had the chance to decide what happens in the world?

How would you run the world?

How would you do it?

What would you decide?

So imagine if you could decide any law that you wanted.

You could make any law, you could bring it forward

and you could say, this is what you have to do from now on.

Maybe something strict, maybe something

that you would want to change in society.

So imagine, imagine for a moment if you could actually do that, if you could take over

maybe just for one day and make some changes, imagine what you could do.

So we are looking at words and phrases connected to ruling,

controlling different types

of government, I suppose as well.

Hello.

Also to Jemmy Jemmy in Hong Kong.

Now, yesterday Mr.

Steve, who was with me yesterday but isn't here today because he has to work.

Unfortunately, not like me.

I can stand here and relax and talk to the world.

Isn't it nice?

So, Steve yesterday was asked about football.

It is fair to say that we know nothing about football.

Mr. Steve and myself, we don't really follow football.

But I do know that Jemmy is a big fan of football.

I think it is fair to say.

Hello to you, Jen.

Hello to you.

Where were you watching at the moment?

I don't recognise your name.

Maybe it may.

If it is your first time, please let me know.

Please say, Mr.

Duncan, It is my first time here.

Zika is here as well.

Hello, Mr. Duncan. It is raining a lot.

Also, there are many stones.

I would imagine that.

You mean hail. Hail. So when.

When the rain freezes, normally we say that

it turns to ice or hail.

Hail.

It is a type of frozen rain.

And sometimes the pieces of ice can be huge.

Sometimes the size of golf

balls or even larger from that.

So it is possible to have hail and also to have a lot of

hailstones falling as well.

I think so.

Hello also to Palmira is here today.

Thank you.

I am doing some special livestreams, so I am with you every day

until next week until the 31st.

So for those who are wondering, why are you here on Monday?

That is the reason why.

Hello to.

Who else is here today? Let's have a look.

I'm just going through my big list.

There are many people joining me.

apparently you are, Jen.

It is your first time here on the live chat.

Congratulations.

I always like to make

everyone feel welcome on my live stream.

So welcome.

And if you want to tell us where you are, I would be very interested

to find out if I was honest with you.

It's nice to see so many people here.

Sameh is here today watching in Egypt.

Hello to you as well.

Fortunately, it is not raining today.

We don't have much rain or hail stones.

Definitely not,

I can safely say.

So we are looking very briefly at words

and phrases connected to ruling the world.

So imagine if you had the chance

maybe to decide one or two

new laws, so new laws

that you could bring in and say, I want to change this

or I want to change that particular thing.

What would you do?

I would have free candy

or free sweets and chocolate every Wednesday.

So every Wednesday you could have one bar of chocolate or maybe your favourite candy,

something that you love to eat, and that would be free every Wednesday for the rest of the week.

You would have to pay for it, but every Wednesday you would have free

chocolate or free candy.

Is that a good idea?

I think so.

I think it's a very good idea.

Our Bob is here as well.

It's nice to see you here as well.

Please let me know where you are.

If you want to say hello to me.

So if you could rule the world.

There it is on the screen.

Everything is very moody today.

Do you like my new studio, by the way?

This is my steampunk studio.

You might not realise it, but I'm very much into Steve Punk.

And for those who wonder what it looks like, it looks a little bit like this.

Very dark and gothic with lots of pipes

and mechanics and steam.

So I hope you like the look of my new studio.

I think it looks rather nice, actually.

Very atmospheric, to be honest.

Duong says,

I have just gained 620 points in my two week test.

Thank you, Mr. Duncan.

I have learnt English from your useful lessons,

and my next target is to expand to 785.

So you are on your way to becoming very fluent in English.

In fact, you are on your way to becoming

expert level.

I like that.

So good luck with the rest of your studies.

And yes, keep on climbing.

That's what I say and I'm sure you can do it.

So here we are then. Rule the world.

If you could rule the world for one day, what would you change?

Something nice.

So I know there might be things you could think of

that might be not so nice, but what about a nice thing?

I think it's good to talk about something nice today.

So if you could rule the world, what would you change?

So mine would be free chocolate every Wednesday.

So you could go to the shop.

You can go in and you can say hello.

Hello, Mr.

Candy store owner.

I will have my free bar of chocolate today

and then you will go home and you will eat your lovely bar of chocolate.

I think that's a really good idea.

So what about you?

Do you have any good ones? If you had a chance.

What would you change in the world?

I suppose there are many ways of describing the controlling or maybe the way you.

You decide what happens in a country.

You might say that you run a country, run.

So I think the word run is actually quite

interesting to run something.

You run a country, you decide

how that thing is controlled.

You decide how it is run.

So quite often we use the word run in English

to describe the way something is operated or controlled.

You run a country

in computer programming, you can run a sequence of processes.

So quite often in computing, we run a program.

Something is operating.

Something is working in a certain way.

Paul May says, Today I have laundry day.

Sadly, my washing machine has broken.

It has worked for over 20 years.

Well, maybe.

Perhaps it might be time to get a new one.

Maybe.

I remember my grandmother used to wash

many of her clothes by hand.

That's how far back my memory goes.

I think so.

Yes. You are welcome.

I'm sure you'll English will improve every day.

I think so.

So if you run something,

it means you control that particular thing.

You might, of course, run a company.

You run maybe a small business.

You are in charge.

Maybe you are the person who makes all of the big decisions.

Maybe you are the one putting money into the company.

So you are running the company.

You are controlling that particular thing.

no. I like this decree.

If you decree something, you are making a decision.

You are making a rule.

You decree something.

So a decree is normally a rule that is introduced.

You decree, you introduce a rule, you decree something.

I like that.

I think that stems way back from from Latin

rule and control.

So when we say that you rule, you control,

you make all the decisions,

you decide what happens next.

So maybe once again, you can rule a certain area.

You can rule a country.

Or as I've been talking about today, you can rule the world.

Imagine that.

It's a little bit like James Bond villains.

They always want to rule the world, but of course,

they are always foiled at the end for you.

I like that word.

If you spoil something,

it means you stop it from happening.

You prevent that thing.

You find out what is happening and you stop it from occurring.

You follow something.

Maybe an evil person who wants to take over the world with their big laser beam.

You might foil their plans

for world domination.

Rosa?

Rosa. Hello, Rosa.

Apparently, your local supermarket gives you free coffee.

You see, I like that.

I like that free coffee.

Now, there are some supermarkets here

in the UK that actually give you free coffee.

So if you go into the shop, you do some shopping,

and then you go to their little restaurant or cafe.

You can actually get a free cup of coffee.

I suppose it is a way of saying thank you for being a customer.

That's what I think anyway.

So yes, I suppose that's as a nice rule.

A supermarket here provides

free coffee every day for its clients.

So you could actually go there every day

and have free coffee every time you go shopping?

I like that.

That's quite a good idea.

So that is a good rule. A nice rule.

Very similar to mine.

My lovely rule about having free candy,

free chocolate every Wednesday.

So if you rule something, it means normally

you are making the decisions.

We often describe that kind of person as a ruler,

the ruler of a certain place,

the person who has normally complete control.

Here we go.

Some words that are not so positive.

Of course, we have to look at all of the words, the happy ones, the positive ones,

and the not so positive ones.

Despots.

A person who rules completely with authority.

Despots.

A person who controls everything.

So they make the decisions.

They have no freedom.

Quite often we often say a despot is a person

also who does not allow freedom amongst

the community.

And I'm losing my voice.

Isn't that nice?

This is why you should always have some water nearby.

When you're

doing a live stream, you must always have some water nearby.

So when we talk about the despots, a person who has complete control.

And quite often that comes with no freedom.

An autocrat is another person,

another type of person who puts themselves in control.

I'm sure there are many other words you could think of using as well.

Some of them perhaps. Not so nice.

Not so pleasant.

Here we go. Another one.

Dictator.

I suppose over history, there have been many dictators.

Many people who have ruled a certain place

or a country whilst taking away

many of the freedoms, many of the types of freedom.

So I suppose we can all think of at least one

dictator over time.

History has recorded many people

who have taken over countries, many different parts of the world.

We describe them as a dictator.

They decide what happens and only them.

Only they make the decisions.

And sometimes those decisions can be can be good.

But quite often they can also be

bad or restrictive.

Hello to Arielle.

Thank you very much for your Super chat.

Arielle.

Thank you very much. Hello Mr. Duncan.

I would like to put two Christmases per year to get more presents.

Sally is very good, so maybe we could have

two celebrations or two public holidays

where people can get together and eat

and they can share time and also share gifts as well.

You know, I like that one.

There are certain types of holidays

or festivals where you can get many presents over lots of days.

So I would like that maybe Christmas we could have

Christmas twice a year

or even three times.

Am I being greedy by saying that?

Maybe so.

Thank you, Arielle, for your lovely, very, very generous super chat.

Thank you very much.

Claudia says.

I think the world can be better if the teaching system is changed.

More empathy, more creativity,

paying attention to the ability of each child

and developing their ability.

I think that is actually a very good suggestion.

I have over the years expressed

some of my opinions.

By the way, I'm taking this off the screen.

I'm taking this off just in case you think that refers to me.

That is not me. I'm not the dictator.

So I will take that off the screen very quickly,

just in case you tune in and you're not sure what's going on.

But I think you're right. Yes.

The education system, even here in the UK, I think there are many problems

that exist in the education system here in the UK as well.

Many things,

especially when we talk about the size of the classes.

So sometimes you can have maybe 35

or 40 students in one classroom.

And this is something I've always disagreed with,

even for my own experience

of being at school, which was a very long time ago, by the way.

But I do remember that the classes were

always very large, lots of students in the classroom.

And I also know from my own experience that quite often

you could be overlooked or neglected by the teacher.

And I have to say, it's not always the teacher's fault.

Sometimes they are asked to teach

very large classrooms full of many, many students.

So it is difficult to give attention

to every student in the classroom

and also also I think

there are many students

who are who are never given the chance

because decisions are made that change their education

or maybe change their actual life,

the direction that they are going in.

I suppose I learnt this from my own experience

when I was at school because I was quite quiet.

I was shy and quite often I think I was overlooked by the teachers.

So because of that they would often

not even notice that you were there.

They would, they would, you would almost vanish

in the classroom, you would almost disappear,

Claudia said.

That's incredible.

53 students in your classroom

when you visit school, that's that's too many, to be honest with you.

That is too many students.

Far too many.

So I think you are right, Claudia.

I think quite often sometimes it is not the fault of the teacher.

Sometimes it is just the fault of the way

the classrooms or the classes are arranged.

But at the moment,

what I will say at the moment is here

teaching has become a rather difficult occupation

for many reasons, not least of all

because many teachers receive very little salary,

they are not paid very well.

So there is I suppose

there is a shortage of teachers here in the UK,

so I'm not sure what the education system is

like where you are in in Argentina,

but I would imagine there are problems there as well.

But they are everywhere.

There is no perfect education system.

In fact, I can say that many people now are moving more

towards private education for their children or even

and this is the thing I've never experienced.

Many children are now being taught.

They're being taught at home.

Home teaching has also become

quite popular, especially after the pandemic,

where many people, of course, had to stay at home

and quite often the schools would close.

And so the children are at home as well.

So home schooling, teaching your children actually at home

and not sending them to school at all has become very popular.

So many people joining in.

Thank you very much.

It's nice to see you here today.

I'm here every day until next Tuesday.

We are doing something different, something special,

live streams every day.

We just talked about dictators

and I'm sure we can think of many when we look back over history.

What about this one?

A plutocracy?

I like this word. It sounds nice.

It sounds like it has something to do with planets, but it doesn't.

It's actually to do with money.

So we are talking about the old word for for money.

So by that, you can guess that a plutocracy

is a country or a government

that is run for the wealthy by the wealthy.

So quite often it is a type of government

that is run or a country

that is ruled by those with wealth.

You might say, I know I'm I'm putting myself at risk here

by saying this, but you might say that in the past, this country,

the one I'm in now, England,

was sort of a plutocracy

because the people who made all the decisions

were the wealthy and everyone else

was at the bottom.

They were all the peasants.

So you might say that even in the past here in this country,

maybe this country was a plutocracy.

But we often think of countries where the wealthy,

those with lots of money, make all the decisions.

Then we have another word that

we hear used quite often democracy.

Mr. Duncan, we've heard of that word.

Democracy, of course, refers

to giving the people, the population,

the choices, the decisions of theirs

sometimes.

So quite often, I suppose I would use this country

as a way of describing that we have a government.

The government has people involved,

a group of people who are elected

by the in individuals like myself.

So we will decide who runs the country,

who is in charge.

We choose.

So quite often I suppose this is the most basic way of describing

democracy is giving the people, giving the population

the choice or a chance to make decisions.

I suppose in recent history in this country,

I would say the biggest decision

that we had to make in this country

was in 2016,

when the referendum for leaving

the European Union was decided.

And of course people voted

and they voted to leave the European Union.

So that is one thing you see a very good example of democracy

or Democrat or democratic

decisions being made.

So a democratic decision is one that is made

by the people normally, through a voting system.

So I would say the last time anything changed in this country

based on a decision that was made by everyone

was the Brexit

agreement,

where we decided that we did not want to stay in Europe.

We wanted to say good bye.

And I'm sure someone is going to ask Mr.

Duncan, what did you vote for?

What did you vote for?

Did you vote for Brexit

or did you did you vote against it?

I bet you would love to know that, wouldn't you?

I think so.

People are who we are now.

This is interesting.

People are hungry all over the world and they don't know how to feed

or look after themselves with basic ways

of farming.

For example, I am a very big fan of farming.

I think

farming is the most basic source

of maybe wealth and health

and I suppose a comfortable life

that we all now expect to have.

So because of farming, over the years

things have changed for many of us,

including here in the UK.

So I would say that farming is a very important thing

and also a very important skill and probably should always be encouraged.

Democracy,

It's a very interesting word.

Now if you have a long memory,

you will know that quite often countries

that don't have democracy are often

persuaded to take it on or accept it

quite often the consequences are not great,

but that, as they say, is another story.

Finally, before I go, Mr.

Duncan, you are being very naughty now.

Communism or

communism.

Communism is a system where

people have nothing but it is all shared equally

and the state always own the things that you have.

So I suppose that is the most basic way of stating what communism is.

But it is of course supposed to be a fair system where everyone

gets an equal share and in reality

I think it is fair to say that does not happen.

Now, I have lived in a communist country, I've lived in China,

and I spent many years living in China.

So I know from from my own experience

what living in a communist country is actually like.

So I'm not just making things up because I've actually had life

experience of this particular political system.

My own opinions.

Well, I suppose I would say that it isn't exactly

a very fair system, Any system of government, any system

where one person or a small group of people

make decisions for the of the people.

You can guarantee

99% of the time

there is some form of greed or corruption.

And I'm not just saying that that exists in communism

because it exists everywhere, even in this country over the years,

many people have been found out

or they've been discovered to be corrupt.

So that's pretty much what it is all about

ruling the world, I don't think, to be honest with.

You I would love to have the chance to rule the world for one day,

but I have a feeling

it's not easy to know why.

Because people

are different.

Everywhere you go, people have different attitudes, different ways of living,

different beliefs, so they all think differently.

So quite often, one person having control

over a large number of people might not be a good idea all the time.

So I don't think it is something I would like to try.

But in my mind up here, in my imagination,

I like to think that I would be a good ruler of the planet.

Don't forget

free chocolate every Wednesday.

So that would be my rule

Vitus, says, Mr.

Duncan, we know that you lived in China.

You lived in a communist country for four years.

I did.

So I was living in China at the same time

as my YouTube channel was born.

So I actually create my YouTube channel whilst living in China.

So it all started that way back in 2006

and way back then, of course, YouTube

was a very different place,

very different from what it is now, to be honest.

Very, very different.

Not only from the way the channel

or the site was run, but also

from the technology that was involved.

So when you put a video onto YouTube in 2006, the quality was very poor.

It was very low definition.

It was not clear.

And of course, if you remember way back in 2006,

you could only have a video that was 10 minutes or less.

You couldn't put anything on there.

It was longer than 10 minutes. So I do remember that,

Palmira says.

Winston Churchill said that democracy is not very good.

But what is better?

Yes. Yes.

He was quite outspoken about democracy.

He said it isn't great, but it's the best that we have.

There isn't anything really better than that.

It is the nearest the nearest

you can get to something that actually works.

So, yes, maybe that maybe that is it.

Lewis is going see you later, Lewis.

Well, I am back with you tomorrow.

I am going in a few moments, by the way.

So this is just a short live stream.

I'm doing a short live stream every single day between now

and the 31st of October,

Lewis says.

We had 50 pupils in primary school

and most of the time the pupils in the last year

would help the ones in the first year.

I think that's a great idea.

I think that's a wonderful thing.

So The senior students would help

the students who have just started school.

I like that. I think that's a lovely idea. In fact.

So I suppose my own

experience of being at school was not a great one.

I know I've said this before, I didn't have a great time at school.

I didn't enjoy it very much.

In fact, sometimes you can learn a lot more

after leaving school than whilst

you are there, to be honest.

Thank you very much for your company today.

Enjoyed being with you and I am with you.

Tomorrow I will be once again live on YouTube.

2 p.m.

UK time you can watch this again and later on

there will be lovely captions on the screen

as well for you to enjoy.

So I will be back with you tomorrow.

Back again from 2 p.m.

UK time and of course

until then you know what's coming next.

Yes you do.

Take care of yourself.

Enjoy the rest of your Monday.

It seems very strange being on Monday.

It really gets

very weird.

In fact.

See you tomorrow.

Don't forget 2 p.m.

and I will see you then.

Thank you very much. Thank you, Miss Staffer.

Thank you. Also VHS.

Thank you.

Palmira also.

Lewis, thank you very much to Claudia.

Thank you for joining us today. See you tomorrow.

And of course, you know what's coming next.

Yes, you do.

there you are.

Ta ta.

for now.

See you tomorrow.