It's February 25th / 28 days of Learning English / LIVE chat from England - Decisions

As you can hear spring is definitely in the air today i think it really does feel like

spring and there you can see the daffodils are now coming up that is now a live view

and also you can hear the live sound as well in the garden the birds are singing everyone

feels happy today because the sun is also out and everyone is feeling rather nice i

hope you are feeling super duper as well here we are again yes it is another day of 28 days

of FABuary and this is day 25 how are you today only

i

hope you are feeling super duper yes here we are again hi everybody this is mr duncan

in england how are you today are you okay i hope so are you happy i really hope you

are feeling good we have made it to another day of this thing we call life thank you very

much for your company yesterday by the way i know it was a little bit different but i

had to rest my voice unfortunately i had a very sore throat i think all of these days

of talking to you live have actually had an effect a negative effect on my voice so i

had to make a decision i had to decide whether i would do my live stream yesterday or not

nearly very nearly i didn't so i almost cancelled yesterday's live stream i almost cancelled

it but i didn't so instead we were able to join together enjoy some english and also

watch the traffic as well i know some of you did not like it you were saying mr duncan

it's so boring yes tomec i'm looking at you

naughty tomec so here i am again today and i feel a little bit better today my throat

is much better i gave it a nice rest i also took some honey as well some warm honey drink

so i drank that a few moments ago i've also had some lovely sweets as well to to soothe

my throat so i am feeling much better today thank you very much and as i mentioned at

the start of today's live stream yes outside it is rather nice shall we have another listen

to the sounds of nature outside right now oh yes can you hear them

the birds are very happy today there it is the sound of nature here in england

hopefully tomorrow by the way can i just say tomorrow i am hoping to go outside so i'm

keeping my fingers crossed like this i'm keeping my toes crossed i'm keeping every part of

my body crossed if i can cross that part of my body i have crossed it already and in some

cases it is rather painful to be honest with you there are certain parts of your body that

you must never cross you must never put them over each other i found out the hard way so

tomorrow hopefully outside i'm here today my voice is much better thank you very much

for asking about my voice it's okay it is one of the problems when you use your voice

often especially when you use it every day it can sometimes wear out but it's much better

today thank you very much for that and yes as some of you have rightly noticed we only

have three more days of february and then it's all over march will arrive and a new

month will be up honors oh no mr duncan what is going to happen in march well you will

have to wait and see thank you very much for joining me nice to see you all here today

oh very interesting yes the end of the week is just around the corner tomorrow will be

friday which means today is

thursday

thursday has arrived everybody

and i hope you are having a super duper day as well we will be doing something in a moment

on a sad note i must say now today we will be playing spot the white fan for the last

time so today we have the final spot the white van and i can hear you all you are all saying

mr duncan we are so pleased we hate spot the white van so today we will be playing spot

the white van for the final time it will soon be time to say goodbye to those white vans

but the big question is what will we be looking at tomorrow well hopefully i am hoping to

be outside in the garden tomorrow and if i can get outside and if everything is quiet

like today

it is so quiet outside today so i'm hoping tomorrow will be just as quiet equally as

quiet outside tomorrow i really hope so so who was first on today's live chat oh can

i say hello to finney finney daya it would appear that you are first on today's live

chat oh congratulations finney daya well done you are first here today

very very nice in fact i think that almost deserves almost deserves a fancy pants

that's enough we can't have too much excitement we still have a long way to go in the week

yes i am

i am with you tomorrow yes don't worry i didn't say that today is the last live stream i didn't

say that tomorrow i will be outside however now we are going to play the last ever spot

the white van as we prepare to say goodbye to this much loved feature and there it is

the view outside live it's sunny it's a lovely spring-like day it feels like spring is on

the way but i'm not going to say that because whenever i say that the weather always turns

rubbish so i did did i see a white van or was that was that a blue van i think that

was a blue van wasn't it i don't think that was a white van that was a blue van

oh yes was was that a white van i think it was oh well that was quick okay we will wait

for one more white van and then that's it there will be no more spot the white van there

will be no more it will be finished forever and i'm sure a lot of you are really looking

forward to seeing the end of spot the white van so not not far not far off yes i know

that there is a white van in the corner of the screen that is a guide you see that is

a guide so you can you can spot the white van more easily

mr duncan we know what a white van looks like what are you saying so all we're waiting for

now is another white van and then we can we can say goodbye to this feature forever and

ever although i must admit the view today is rather nice i'm rather enjoying it to be

honest all we need now is another white van of course at this time of the day many people

are taking a rest they are taking a break maybe the delivery drivers have been working

since five o'clock this morning so some of them are probably taking a rest at the moment

maybe we should have some nature sounds as well oh that's a big lorry i don't know what

that's containing i wonder what's in there oh i think yes was that was that a white van

i think we had a white van and also a blue van as well and there is another white van

so that's it and another oh my goodness

i don't know why you wait for five minutes for a white van to come along and then you

get three at the same time so that's it we have spotted the white van and that is it

for the white vans we will not be spotting any more so i can i think we can safely say

that we have found at least five white vans today goodbye white vans

goodbye

it's it's rather sad to be honest goodbye white vans i'll never forget you and they've

gone that's it no more spot the white van so tomorrow we are outside and hopefully also

on saturday we will also be outside also also i'm really hoping so anyway thank you very

much for your lovely messages so many messages

yes we had three white vans at the same time today i know it's amazing and i think that

is a good way to end that little contest i think so today what are we talking about well

as i mentioned just a few moments ago

i'm loving your messages by the way i'm reading your messages at the same time as talking

to you so sometimes i get very distracted by the messages on the screen interesting

so yesterday i had to make a decision i was not sure yesterday if i should do my live

stream or not because my throat was really painful and uncomfortable so i had to make

a decision and today that is exactly what we are talking about so i suppose the first

question i should ask you today is have you ever been forced to make a decision so you

have to make a decision quite often in life decisions are small things sometimes a decision

is something that might make a very small change you have to decide on a small thing

perhaps you have to decide what to eat what shall i eat for my tea what shall i eat for

my dinner so sometimes you do have to make choices you have to make decisions and today

we are talking all about that oh you just met a helicopter a helicopter just went right

past on the live fan view we missed that you see we missed the helicopter going by that

was rather dramatic unfortunately only i could see it so quite often we have to make decisions

in our lives we have to make big decisions we sometimes have to make choices as well

so quite often when we say decision we are talking about a choice maybe you have to choose

what to eat maybe you have to decide or choose what to wear however sometimes in your life

you have to make big decisions have you ever been forced to make a decision maybe you have

to choose between two people perhaps you are a boss running a company and there are two

people who want a promotion but you have to choose just one of them so you might say that

that is a very hard decision to make it is a very tough decision so some decisions are

not easy to make some decisions are hard to make they are hard to decide

ricardo is here hello ricardo nice to see you here this world pushes us every day into

problematic decisions yes i must be honest with you i do not envy all of those people

with power and responsibility anyone with lots of power and responsibility i i do not

envy the decisions that they have to make almost every day so imagine that imagine if

you have to make decisions that will change the lives of thousands maybe even millions

of people imagine that i think the stress of making lots of big decisions can actually

have a negative effect on your life i think so i think it can cause certain types of anxiety

hello sora sora hamasha says decision making or decision making is making me stressed so

if you have to make an important decision sometimes a decision can be trivial small

unimportant something you have to decide but it won't have any big consequences so quite

often when we talk about making decisions there is always something you decide and quite

often there is also a consequence to that decision so quite often you might imagine

or you might think that small decisions have small consequences big decisions have big

consequences i think it's fair to say

sandra says oh thank you sandra mr duncan it is your your most important decision is

to take care of your voice thank you very much that's very kind of you to say my voice

is much better today it's still it still feels a little bit rough but that's because i've

been using it too much however three days and then i can have a little rest i will be

able to rest my voice because our 28 days of february will come to an end on sunday

we have to decide oh yes well i suppose the situation that is going on at the moment in

the world and i'm sure you don't need me to tell you what it is because we all know we

all know what it is the thing that is happening so i suppose there are decisions that might

save lives decisions that might help people live

it's incredible so sometimes decisions can literally be life or death and sometimes in

life you have to make life or death decisions maybe you have to decide whether to have a

certain operation maybe you have to go into hospital for some surgery maybe there is something

wrong with a part of your body so you have to make a decision and sometimes that type

of decision can be life or death a moment of time a decision that can change your life

or maybe someone else's life i think so

hello to palmyra oh we also have pedro belmont every day we are forced to make decisions

i think these days especially quite often we have to decide i don't know maybe what

to do maybe you find yourself in a situation where you have lots of time on your hands

and you don't know what to do with yourself what do i do sometimes you have to decide

you have to make a decision maybe you have to decide whether you go out for a walk or

stay in the house so quite often decisions are based on something you will do

maybe something you will do in the future maybe something you will do in a few moments

immediately so you can decide to do something in the future or you can decide to do something

right now

hello marietta sometimes i make decisions but i'm not i would do not continue

but now i have decided to learn english with you thank you very much that's very nice of

you to say i can't read your name because it is in arabic but can i say hello to you

and i think sometimes decisions can put you on another path so you follow another direction

or a different direction in your life so sometimes a decision can be life changing you are changing

your outcome you are changing what happens next in your life so yes i think you're right

hello flower espoire for me one of my hardest decisions was when i had to choose between

two men oh oh dear you see when we talk about affairs of the heart we are talking about

love looking for love finding love choosing the right lover i think so yes sometimes you

have to follow my heart or follow your heart

flower espoire says i had to choose between two men

and i had to decide and follow my heart knowing that i will live with problems or to have

peace in my mind thank you flower well any decision small or large now i would say choosing

the right partner to spend your life with is a big decision i would say definitely

luis mendes hello luis oh lewis mendes is here today thank you very much hiroko is here

as well

hiroko says anyway the wind blows nothing really matters to me that sounds like the

line from a song i think it is yes a song by queen anyway the wind blows nothing really

matters to me

i'm just watching the sheep running around in the distance i'm very distracted by my

camera today because there's lots of things happening in front of me right in front of

me and the sad thing is you can't see it but i can

because no one wants to spot the white van i know so i have made a decision i have decided

not to play spot the white van ever again it will never happen again i promise hello

raja oh i am raja from iraq thank you very much and i'm very pleased to see you here

thank you for making the decision you have made your choice to improve and hopefully

learn the english language very nice thank you for joining me here

leah garcia says my grandma always decides should i put a hat on or should i not wear

a hat should i wear a hat today or should i not wear a hat so sometimes we ask the question

to ourselves it is common for us to make a decision quite often we will ask questions

to ourselves what should i do what shall i do today what shall i do shall i go for a

walk or shall i stay at home what shall i have to eat my goodness everything's going

on in front of me okay i'm going to change my screen in front of me because there are

all sorts of things happening outside on my camera and it's very distracting and i think

it's very unfair to leave you out

ah flower says i think this is in response to what i said a few moments ago yes it is

hard to make a decision but love sometimes is not sufficient to choose your partner sometimes

it involves other things i i'm very curious to find out what you mean by that what do

you mean by that well i think most people find when they meet someone quite often the

first thing they feel is attraction so quite often your eyes are telling you oh hello hello

you're nice

yes and then after that if you if you have the courage if you make the decision to ask

that person today to you to go out together somewhere nice and then slowly you get to

know each other so you can have love at first sight i personally

i personally don't believe in love at first sight however i do believe that it is possible

to to to meet someone for the first time and actually feel as if you've always known them

to feel as if you you've always had them somewhere in your life so that's the the feeling i had

when i met steve you see mr steve when i met steve it felt as if i had always known him

in my life very strange so it can happen sometimes

surah surah hamasha says i am thinking about drawing your face do you mean me are you going

to make are you going to draw my face

my next question is why why do you want to draw my face hello wilson oh hello wilson

i have not seen you for a long time thank you wilson

that's very kind of you thank you very much have you ever seen the fish and chip van around

your area when i was a child and this is not a word of a lie when i was a child we used

to have a fish and chip van so inside the van there would be a man and he would be frying

his chips and also frying some fish and then he would drive to the front of your house

and he would sound his horn

and then we would know that the fish and chip man had arrived yeah mum can we have some

fish and chips so yes we used to not anymore you don't see them anymore but we used to

we used to have the fish and chip van it used to stop outside our house we also used to

have a bread van as well there used to be a bread van who would deliver bread to your

house every day and also there would be the ice cream van as well oh now that is one thing

i am really looking forward to i am looking forward

to the ice cream van going by my house

i really i really can't wait

now i did have an ice cream van but i can't find it where is my ice cream van i don't

know what's happening at the moment i keep finding things and then i lose them again

i don't know how that's possible i used to have a little ice cream van that would come

past but now i can't find it where is it gone it's not fair it's not this is it is it this

it's not that one i should not press buttons unless i know what they are for so that definitely

isn't it very strange i wonder what's happened to my ice cream van i'm going to try and find

it because it's really annoying me now where is the ice cream van i want a nice scream

oh there it is i found it so here is the ice cream van that is going to go by and when

i was a child i would always wait patiently to find some money or maybe i would ask my

mother for some money and then i would run outside because i could hear the ice cream

man was coming around the corner

was it worth the wait are you happy now that i did that has it really made a difference

to today's live stream i don't think so i really don't yes marietta says we still have

the bread van in our area and quite often in the rural areas the baker will come every

day you are very lucky i wish i would love to have my bread delivered every day but unfortunately

around here we don't do it we don't do it

tomek is saying why do you cherry-pick the comments i don't i don't cherry-pick them

it's just that my screen everything is always moving you see

louis mendes is talking about the virus

how many emojis did you buy well i have enough of these to put on my hat for 28 days so i

hope that answers your question mr duncan you act like a child do i really ma roots

sroka says that thank you very much

i miss the ice cream man we don't get the ice cream van around here unfortunately because

i live in the countryside we don't have any vans well we have lots of white vans but no

ice cream van unfortunately so today we are talking about decisions there are lots and

lots of words that we can use when we are talking about making decisions so that is

what we are talking about for the rest of today's live stream making decisions

and also making choices as well

leah garcia says it is not cherry-picking mr duncan is making decisions it is a decision-making

action i like that and that leads very nicely into what i'm talking about today we are talking

about making a decision a decision is a thought that confirms a plan or course of action in

the future the fate of another person can be chosen through a decision being made you

decide something based on some sort of evaluation oh you come to a decision you have reached

a decision you have decided the result of a decision is the outcome or conclusion when

we talk about decisions we are talking about a thought so most decisions come from some

type of thought some type of thought that comes in your mind so quite often a decision

is something that we think about and then we make a choice all of these things are done

consciously we think about them in our mind maybe something you have to do maybe some

some place you have to go to perhaps you have to decide how to get somewhere maybe you have

to go for a job interview and then you have to decide how to get there shall i drive shall

i take the train shall i go in a taxi so quite often there are decisions to make and we have

to make them quite often so you decide you have to decide you have to make a choice you

make a decision so the word decision is actually the outcome so you might say the decision

is the result of making a choice or making a decision so the decision is the final thing

that you decide before making a decision you must do certain things so sometimes when you

have a choice so maybe you have a choice of two things or maybe many things you have to

make a choice before making a decision you must evaluate oh yes you must evaluate so

quite often when you make a decision or if you are making a choice you have to evaluate

you look at the choices that you have what are the choices and then you evaluate you

decide which choice is the best you evaluate you decide on which thing is the best choice

to make and then you can make your decision you can work out the best course of action

if you work out the best course of action that once again is expressing the action of

making a decision the best course of action is what will i do next what is the best thing

to do what is the best way to approach this thing or this situation you work out the best

course of action so this is what you do when you are trying to make a decision ah i like

this word now this is a word i used a few weeks ago and i think i used it as well maybe

last week ponder i love this word so sometimes when you have a choice to make you have to

make a decision sometimes you will ponder you will think very carefully about what the

decision will be what decision should i make what is the decision that i should make so

you ponder you think and then decide

you think about what to do you think about what your next step will be as i mentioned

earlier in life quite often you have to make choices that will affect your life forever

you look at the choices as i said a few moments ago sometimes you are forced to choose between

two or more things so what you normally do is look at the choices it's a little bit like

going for a meal in a restaurant quite often you will have a menu so the menu will normally

be given to you and then you will make a decision on what to eat so first you will look at the

choices so you will see what is on offer you will see what the selections are hmm what

shall i have to eat i wonder you look at the choices

now this oh yes i like this one

sometimes when you have to make a choice sometimes you will weigh up the pros and cons so in

this sentence the word pro means the good things and the cons are the bad things the

negative things so you are looking at both sides of the choices what is the best thing

to choose and sometimes it's not very easy to make a choice sometimes you have to look

at the pros and the cons by that i mean the good things and the bad things the positive

things and the negative things you have to weigh up way up so when we say way up it means

you are deciding yes you are weighing up you are evaluating between those two things

here's another one you have to consider the benefits and yes i know human beings can be

very selfish but quite often when we make a decision when we make a choice quite often

we will think of the benefits how will i benefit from that thing if i choose that what will

be the benefits what will i gain what will i get so even though we are quite often kind

and considerate to other people there are moments where we can be very selfish and quite

often when we make a decision or a choice we can also be quite selfish as well

hello to hailey quang oh yes hailey quang says sometimes you have to make a deal i think

so yes so sometimes a choice can also be making a deal with another person maybe you have

to make a choice maybe another person makes you an offer or maybe they make you two offers

sometimes you have to make a decision and quite often you will have to make a deal

yes i think you're right

what are the consequences what are the consequences of something being decided if you make that

choice what are the consequences what is the result what will happen if i choose that thing

what will happen is it a good thing or a bad thing is it the right choice or the wrong

choice so sometimes before making a decision you have to decide what the consequences are

because of course every action has a reaction everything we do has some sort of consequence

the consequence is the result

you have to ask yourself is it a good decision am i making a good decision am i making the

right decision is my decision a good decision

or a bad one here is another one i know i like this i think maybe you haven't heard

of this particular phrase but this is a phrase we do use in english you have to look at the

whys and the wherefores the whys and the wherefores what does this mean mr duncan the result you

are looking at the result of your decision so the whys and the wherefores come together

and they they mean the result of your decision and quite often we will use this when we are

trying to find out what the choices are and whether those choices are a good choice or

a bad choice you often look at the whys and the wherefores

it's a great expression and yes we still use it even though this particular word the word

wherefore is actually old-fashioned it's actually quite an old word so the wherefore is the

result the outcome

here's another one i'm just keeping my eye on the time i'm watching the time you see

oh yes we have 14 minutes to go

sometimes a decision can be easy sometimes a decision can be simple sometimes it is easy

it is an easy decision to make so when you decide something you make a decision you are

deciding up here

it is an easy decision to make of course there is the opposite sometimes things can be very

hard it is a tough decision to make perhaps oh perhaps you are a boss of a company and

there are two people on your list but one of them you must fire you must make redundant

because you have too many people working for you so one of these people has to go you have

to say goodbye to them you have to make them redundant so sometimes a decision can be very

difficult we quite often refer to it as a tough decision a difficult decision it is

a tough decision to make it is not easy so a good example of that is having to choose

a member of your staff one of your employees you have to make them redundant because you

have too many people working for you so you might say that that is a very tough decision

it is a decision that is not easy to make

then we have of course as i mentioned earlier we have the outcome of a decision the result

of a decision so before you make a decision you think and then afterwards

you will find out what the result of your decision is

so quite often there are two outcomes good and bad you might have a good outcome or a

bad outcome the result can be positive or negative sometimes we do make decisions sometimes

we make bad decisions

the result of a decision can be described as the upshot the upshot of a decision is

the result it is the upshot the upshot of a decision is the result

have you ever heard of that before have you heard of that word before the upshot the upshot

we could also say the conclusion of something as well the conclusion of a decision the conclusion

is the result the outcome the upshot the result

ah now this is an interesting word the verdict of the thing that you have been trying to

decide on so sometimes the verdict can be the decision you are saying the thing that

you have decided upon the verdict maybe you are deciding whether or not to employ someone

in your company you have to decide whether to choose that person or not what is the verdict

what is your decision also in a court trial if a person is on trial for a serious crime

a group of people will come together and then they will decide what the verdict is they

will make a decision based on the evidence that they've heard

we also have the choice made so the choice made is basically the thing that has been

decided your decision is the choice made the choice you made is the decision you have had

to make a choice then you make a decision and that is the choice that you have made

you have come to a decision

just before announcing or telling people what you have decided you can say that you have

come to a decision ladies and gentlemen i have come to a decision i have decided that

there will be no spot the white van ever again it's finished it's ended so i have come to

a decision i have decided that is my decision my decision is to never play spot the white

van ever again

a decision has been made i have made my decision i have made my choice my choice is final so

when you say that your decision is final it means it cannot be changed i will not change

my decision i will not change my mind that is it i will not be changing my decision or

anything that is my choice my decision and that is my final decision i will not be changing

my mind

then well sometimes it is hard very hard to make a decision it is very hard to make a

choice so sometimes we like to put off making a final decision sometimes we put off things

oh i don't want to make a decision today i will think about it and then i will tell you

tomorrow is that a good idea so i don't want to tell you today what my decision is i don't

want you to i don't want to tell you i just don't because i i can't decide or maybe you

don't want to decide maybe you just don't want to do it at all i don't want to decide

i'm going to put off making a decision

if you put off something it means you delay you postpone you make something continue

to carry on is to put off so i am deciding to put off my decision i have decided that

i won't give you a decision today i put off something so if you put off something it means

you delay you put it off until another time

oh i love this word by the way this word is one of my favourite words in english you procrastinate

to procrastinate is to think wait you can't decide you find it difficult to make a decision

you are undecided you can't decide you can't make up your mind that is another way of saying

decision you make a decision you have to make up your mind sometimes you can't sometimes

you don't want to you procrastinate a lot of people do that me included i do it sometimes

i know quite often there are responsibilities there are things that i have to decide but

i don't want to do it i don't want to i want to i want to delay that thing i want to put

it off i can't make up my mind i procrastinate

you might have a tough choice to make sometimes in life there are very tough choices as i

said earlier on in my live stream there are a lot of choices that have to be made in life

on a daily basis quite often every day you have to make choices and decisions sometimes

you don't even realize it maybe you have to put your socks on in the morning and you choose

your socks but maybe you do it without even thinking so it is possible sometimes to make

choices and decisions without even thinking about it it can happen sometimes especially

if it is part of your routine if you are in your routine of doing the same thing sometimes

your choices or your decisions can be made very quickly without any any problems

to put something off to delay or postpone so if you have a tough choice it means you

have to make a decision which is very hard to decide you have a choice you have two choices

but the decision is not easy it's not easy it is not an easy decision to make because

you have a tough choice in english there is an expression that we can use when you have

a very tough choice or a very difficult decision to make we can say that you are stuck between

a rock and a hard place i love this so imagine yourself stuck between a rock and a hard place

and you are in the middle you are in between you don't know which way to go because both

of the choices are very difficult to make you are stuck between a rock and a hard place

the decision is not easy it is very hard to make that decision it is not easy to make

and well guess what that is it for today to be stuck between a rock and a hard place if

you have to make a decision that is not easy to decide on you can find yourself stuck between

a rock and a hard place i hope you've enjoyed today's live stream that was day number 25

of february over with it is done it is finished but i will see you tomorrow hopefully outside

i am really hoping i am keeping my fingers crossed that tomorrow we will be outside enjoying

nature enjoying the birds song and hopefully also enjoying the sunshine because apparently

the weather tomorrow is going to be really nice we will have one last listen to the sounds

of nature outside

i think the birds have fallen asleep i think they've all gone to sleep belarusia thank

you very much for your lovely comment i enjoyed this lesson very much thank you very much

for all of your lovely messages and i will see you tomorrow because tomorrow is friday

and i will be outside hopefully so there are two things that i have to decide i have to

decide if i should go outside tomorrow and also i have to decide what i'm going to talk

about tomorrow as well so actually i have two decisions that i now have to make between

now and tomorrow's live stream thank you for your company i hope you've enjoyed today's

live chat thank you for being with me and yes i hope tomorrow we will enjoy some more

of the lovely sounds of nature and of course until the next time we meet here don't forget

to give me a thumbs up if you like this please give me a lovely thumb don't forget also you

can watch this live stream again later on youtube hopefully also there will be captions

later on as well there will be captions and of course until tomorrow 2 p.m uk time hopefully

outdoors and i'm also hoping it's not too noisy you know what's coming next this is

mr duncan in the birthplace of english saying thank you so much for watching me today and

of course you know what's coming next

ta ta for now