A NICE SURPRISE - what's in the box? / English Addict EXTRA - Wed 25th Jan 2023

Do you like surprises?

I know I do.

Well, yesterday I had a lovely surprise

when this package was delivered to my front door.

The only thing is I haven't opened it yet.

But later on today, we will have a look

at what is inside this box.

So please don't go away.

Stay with us.

Lots of surprises coming your way.

This is English addict.

Coming to you live and direct from the birthplace of the English language,

which is, of course, England

Here we are.

We're back.

We are back With a vengeance, baby.

A vengeance. Hello, everybody. Hello, Mr. Duncan.

I know I've already said hello to you today, but I'm going to say it again anyway.

Well, you can say it here on the live stream.

I can. Hello, Mr. Duncan.

Hello, Mr. Steve.

We are back together. Hi, everybody.

This is Mr.

Duncan and I think you might already know by now.

That is Mr. Steve.

We love the English language and we are back once again.

We are together with another English addict Extra.

It is an extra slice, if you please,

A midweek bonanza.

Yes, we could say it's very warm outside, Mr.

Duncan. I know it's it's around about.

Well, at the moment, on my computer, it says 11 degrees. Yes.

So yesterday it was probably two degrees. Today it's 11.

It's a big jump and a big jump.

Of course, it wouldn't be a live stream from England

without talking about the weather, because you know what it's like here.

English people, we love talking about

the well, it is often used in conversation.

Maybe when you meet someone in the street, someone might say good morning or hello

and the other person might say, Oh, isn't it cold today?

Or is it it hot today?

Or isn't it windy today? Yes.

British people use the weather as a friendly way of getting conversation going

because you need to say something, don't you, to get conversation going with people

and with the weather, it's always, oh, what do you think of the weather today?

Oh, it's a bit cold or it's a bit wet because in England

the weather is never the same from one day to the next.

It's always different.

We never have the same weather.

We rarely two days in a row.

So yesterday was weird.

Today it's warm, it's very warm and damp.

We've had lots of rain, but it's very damp and mild.

It doesn't feel like mid-winter, I will be honest with you.

Anyway, we are here together again.

We've made it all the way to Wednesday.

It is lovely to be with you.

I hope your week so far has been rather nice.

We have lots of things to look at today, including yes,

as I mentioned at the start on my pre-recorded video,

we are going to take a look at what is inside

the box that I received at the start of the week.

What is in there?

That surprise is coming up.

We also have a little anniversary, a significant

event took place ten years ago today.

It might it might not be significant for you,

but for us it is a significant anniversary today.

What else are we talking about?

I believe, if I'm not mistaken, Mr.

Steele.

Yes, I believe somebody is having a good week.

Someone out there in YouTube land

has recently celebrated their birthday.

Yes. Are we talking about a certain

birthday boy called Vitesse?

We are. Hallo, Vitesse.

We received your your message yesterday.

And can I say happy birthday?

Belated, of course.

Belated sighted.

Something that comes after the event

we often describe as belated.

So belated birthday greetings to Vitesse

and I hope you had a super duper day yesterday.

Yesterday, 21.

Again, we don't ask ages where you can ask men

their age.

We're not going to ask.

I mean, if you want to tell us, you can, but you don't know.

You certainly never ask a woman her age.

You never are.

Well, it is always seen as rude, probably in the in the UK,

certainly probably in most parts of the world, I would say.

Well, I think so. I think it's personal. Yes.

It's almost as bad as asking a person how much they earned from their job.

The older you get, the more years you can knock off and get away with it.

By the way, I really yes, you can get away with the older you get,

you can knock off more and more years and it and it's believable.

So you can always reduce your age like. Yes.

So a lot of people don't believe that we are the age that we are. So.

So what about you, Steve? What do you think

you could

possibly reduce your age by?

I as a slight lie.

So maybe you want to make your yourself feel better.

You can just say, Oh, maybe I am.

How old? Well,

of course, in these lights, where you look

magnificently younger than we actually are in reality.

Have you met us face to face?

Oh, I could probably knock ten years off.

Probably. And get away with it. Some people.

Because you when you when people say

when people ask how old you are and then you tell them

or if then it's it's courtesy to always say to somebody

who you don't look your age because that's what people want to hear.

You've everybody lies when that if somebody

if you say to somebody, how old are you?

How old are you?

And they say 50.

And you say, Oh yeah, you look 50.

Nobody would ever say that because it would be impolite.

And rude.

So you would always say, Oh, you you look very good.

You know, you're very good for your age or you only drop 40.

But so I don't know whether because people say to me, oh,

you only look I mean, I'm 61,

I seem to be 60 to 62 next month.

Next month.

And people often say to me, oh, you haven't, you know,

sort of late forties, early fifties or something.

I'm But you don't know if they're lying to you or not.

Yeah.

So, so anyway, back to banks the point I was making.

Yeah.

So, Mr.

Steve, you think you could say that you are 52

and people we pay and people would believe you.

So me, from my point of view, I think I could

still say that I'm

maybe 4041

laughs I'm joking.

I'm joking for comic effect.

But now we have just had a lovely day.

Yes, Well, well, see, the funny thing is,

and I've mentioned this before, is

a lot of you know, my mother sadly died last year.

But that's the funny thing.

Know what's funny is that I only find out from all her friends

who attended a funeral that Mum my mother had been lying about her age to everybody for years.

So that's it, you see. So how.

How old? How old was your mother?

Oh, she was.

She was 92.

And how old did she say she was?

She took ten years off. Said she was 82.

Everybody thought she was ten years younger than she was, which was a big surprise to me

because she would she would always say that her sister,

she would always criticise her sister for always lying about her age.

And yet I found out that my brother was I mean, it's

not a serious lie, I think.

And let's be honest, because here

you may have noticed, here we just say what we think.

Sometimes it gets into a little bit of trouble.

Sometimes nobody cares about what we say.

But I think everyone lies at some point

about their age, even unconsciously, even even to themselves.

So you might look in the mirror and you might actually look at yourself.

And unconsciously

or subconsciously, you are actually taking those years off.

You might not even realise you're doing it.

You're just going by the appearance, the reflection that you see staring back at you.

I'm always fascinated by these things, by the way.

Human nature does fascinate me.

This the live chat, we've got two different opinions here.

You see, Christine is saying that we only look 40. Oh.

And then he repeats, saying, Yeah, he looks 62.

So. So you know, it's funny isn't it.

So I take it that's it.

Well I do that he repeats even p e w a p I ask you who are you.

You're not Tomic in disguise. Probably. Probably.

It sounds like the sort of thing Tom Tomic would say sort of thing.

Tomic We're definitely. I think so.

So thank you for that.

So apparently we only look like we might be around 40, which is lovely.

That's very nice.

It's still a bit old.

The lights. The lights you see making us younger.

I would prefer 36 or 35, but there you go.

You can't have everything in this world.

But yeah, it is something that people common.

And when you're when you get to sort of 70, 80, 90 years old, you can take off ten, 20 years

and no one's going to question it because and that's the other thing we've said before,

if it's not really a compliment, if when you're, say, 80,

70, you look ten years younger, I mean, in the seventies, still not good.

If you're 94 and someone says you only look 86 or 80, it's still not really a compliment.

Or even if they say you only look 70, it's not really a compliment because you still look old.

So we do have to be careful sometimes what we say.

It's funny, especially when we are commenting

on a person's appearance.

I think these days my throat is being annoying today.

I think these days

men are just as worried as women.

I think in the past men didn't really care.

But these days I think they do.

I think.

Are you new e w ap European?

Are you new to this channel?

If so, welcome.

And we'll take it.

You know, all sorts of abuse.

Well, up to a point because we've got moderators

that will help us out effectively.

If you go to Viagra.

Yeah, we're not up for a bit of ribbing.

Yeah, it's coming, but we don't we don't mind physical abuse.

Verbal abuse.

Well, not physical.

We just we're just we're just glad of the attention, to be honest.

Exactly. And anything's going good or bad.

I mean, that's why people go on social media, isn't it?

And Twitter, I there was an interesting thing about Twitter I read the other day.

I mean, this is fairly I was reading a news article this morning

because Germany

had been trying to decide whether to give the leopard tank some data to Ukraine

and apparently within Germany, within the political parties in Germany.

And if there's somebody watching. Okay, so

is there a point?

Yeah, the point is that the political the politicians within Germany

were having an argument with each other on Twitter

about whether they should send the tanks or not,

which and then somebody pointed out that, you know, maybe

supposedly, you know, top politicians should not be arguing

things out in public on Twitter about such a serious matter.

Is this.

Well, and also so, you know, people like to get attention, don't they?

But I should point out that I think Twitter,

social media, certain social media sites

have become a platform almost for politicians.

And I suppose the big change occurred

when Donald Trump became president of the US.

And because he has a very high profile

on social media and also in the entertainment industry, it did change the way

politicians, people in power, the way they communicate with each other.

So I don't think it's very unusual

to see high ranking officials or maybe politicians

having a little battle

or a little war of words on the Internet.

Belarus here.

Claudia. Hello, Claudia. Claudia,

Of course, people have

been asking what have you What do you got?

Cooking and better clothes.

Claudia's used an interesting expression today.

A pie in the oven.

Oh, as long as it isn't a bun in the oven.

That's what I was going to say.

Because if you say you've got a bun in the oven,

a bun obviously is like a cake.

Yes. It means you're pregnant.

It's an expression we use in England.

I don't know whether other countries use it.

So if you've got a bun in the oven. Yes.

So if you have a bun in the oven, it is.

It is a type of phrase that we use an idiom for for expecting

a baby may be in the early stages of pregnancy.

So we're assuming you're not pregnant.

You might tell your friends that you have a bun in the oven.

And it's a sort of a it's a sort of a polite way of saying you're pregnant sometimes.

Sounds a harsh word, isn't it?

I think pregnant. I'm pregnant.

It sort of sounds a bit,

but it doesn't sound nice.

But if you say I've got a bun in the oven, maybe it sounds more pleasant.

Maybe it sounds too clinical.

Yes, it sounds a bit clinical,

but yeah, there we go.

Obviously you don't have a bun in the oven.

You've got a pie in the oven.

Unless that means unless you are trying to tell us something else.

Okay, So you just just keep digging.

That whole.

So today we are looking at words and phrases connected

to significant moments.

Significant times, because today we are having a significant anniversary.

Ten years ago today

on the 25th of January 2013,

we moved here.

We may today.

Today I forgot the 25th of January, forgot our anniversary.

Mr. Duncan So it's the anniversary of us moving here to much.

Wenlock Would you like to see a video image

One of the first video images that I that I filmed after we moved here.

Would you like to see it?

Go on.

You won't recognise it.

It's amazing. Heritage.

Did we not look any older? It's not us.

So there is the view out of the window of my studio

and that is way back in 2013.

You can see it has changed quite a lot.

You will notice that the trees on the left are much shorter

and also the tree that you could see on the right has gone completely.

We had that chopped down because it was far too large.

And also outside my studio window, there were lots of plants

that were growing far too high.

So the view out of the window now

looks very different from the view that you can see there.

So that was way back in 2013, just after we moved here.

Would you like to see another thing?

This is one of the first video sequences that I filmed after we moved here,

and this will give you a clue as to how the weather was.

So you can see when we first moved here, it was snowing.

In fact, the day we moved in, the snow

had just fallen and everything was covered in thick snow.

And there is one of the first ever videos that I filmed from the window.

And you can see there are some some little blue tips having a feed

on the the bird house.

So that bird house is now gone because it fell to pieces.

So that was actually left for us by the previous owners, but

it sadly fell apart and it no longer exists.

But I thought it was interesting to have a look at some views.

And here's another view from the window.

I don't think this view has changed very much, Steve.

I think this one is still pretty the same, Pretty similar.

So this was first from ten years ago.

Wow. 2030.

Very snowy. Yes.

And would you like to see the studio that we're in right now?

Here it is, Steve, on the screen right

now. So there is the studio

that we are in and that's what it looks like

before we well, we we ripped everything out.

Almost everything.

It was a bedroom, wasn't it?

It was a bedroom.

And it was used by the previous owners.

But of course we decided to repurpose the room

and we turned it into my lovely studio and that's what it looks like now.

So the room that we are in now used to look like that,

but now it looks like that

you haven't got all the cameras and your computer equipment in there yet. Mr..

So this was just after I finished

decorating the room and changing things.

But now, of course, this room is full of computer

equipment, lights

and sometimes Mr.

Steve and myself are in this room doing all sorts of things.

It's it's somebody else's birthday.

It's somebody's birthday today. Is it? Yes.

President Zelensky's birthday today.

Is it really 44?

Well, he could get the mother of all

actually birthday presents.

I think he looks slightly older than 44.

I'm not surprised at the strain of what he's been going through

because I saw some video footage of

President Zelensky

taken a couple of years before he became the president.

But but he looks healthy and he looks about 20, rather.

You can imagine the strain of, you know, having to manage.

You country going to war.

But yes, Zelensky's birthday today,

he may well get a very nice

birthday present in the form of hundreds of leopard tanks.

Yes. From Europe.

But imagine what kind of birthday present.

That would be a celebration he's going to have if he gets that.

Yeah, it's going to make his birthday because I think that due to

I make an announcement today on that Fortunately, no nukes yet.

That's up to about that Mr.

Trump no nukes so maybe that's on the on his birthday list as well.

But all he's got is so he might be a bit disappointed that all he's got are just some tanks.

Maybe he wanted a couple of well, we don't know that

that's not me.

I know.

Well, I don't think we're going to be responsible for ramping up the Third World War I.

I think we're okay those days.

Yeah, but.

Yeah, but he was first. Mr. Duncan today.

You haven't mentioned that yet.

First, on today's live chat, congratulations to Beatrix.

You are first today

in March of this year.

Congratulations.

Really.

I think the first five or six people probably went on at the same time

because I think it can't put you all on at the same time.

So I think obviously Lewis was there, Vitus was there,

Paolo was there, Beatrice was there,

Mohsin and Palmira

and Claudia all at the same sort of time.

So you're all winners.

And of course, I have to say hello to Lewis.

Mendez is here today.

Hello, Louis. Nice to see you back as well.

Yeah. So we hope you had a lovely birthday yesterday.

V Chancellor.

We've come full circle and, and yeah, we just had a lovely day.

And you had lots of nice presents.

Yes. There in Lithuania I think it is.

And somebody else, somebody else is having a birthday

as we mentioned earlier, Steve will be another year older.

He wants to say 52, I want to say 42, but no one will believe you.

That's true.

42, 52 or maybe 62.

He hasn't made up his mind yet.

So, Mr.

Steve, you have your birthday coming in February.

Are you're looking forward to it,

though?

I don't really look forward to birthdays as you get older.

It doesn't bother me. Not going to worry about it.

I'm sure a lot of you, when you're getting older, you don't.

I'm having said that, I know.

I do know friends that do worry a lot about significant dates.

You know, the decade, birthdays,

40, 50, 60, I think 70.

I think I might might feel a bit down at 70.

Yeah, well I'm not going to look at that It look on the bright side.

Eight years from now we will all be here together.

We'll be celebrating your, your 70th birthday.

You'll be sitting in your, your little bath chair.

Do you think we'll also be friends in eight years time with your ear trumpet,

trying to listen to the conversation taking place.

So I'm sure you will be okay. We'll be.

Will be. Will we all still be here?

I mean, no, I don't mean physically.

I mean we're we all still be here on the live stream in eight years time. Yes.

What you, Mr. Duncan?

I think so myself.

I'm not going anywhere.

Despite the fact that a lot of people wish I would.

But no, I'm not going anywhere.

So eight years from now, eight years, that's that's a long time, of course, in the future.

But that's.

That's 32, isn't it. 31.

3121 2031.

Oh, my goodness.

Yes. And 2030.

That'll be a year after the European ban on cars

with internal combustion engines, although secretly we know that's not going to happen.

There is no way that's going to happen anyway.

Talking of anniversaries, talking of significant things,

are you ready to find out what was in the box?

I'm I'm sure a lot of people want to see this.

So we are now going to take a short break, but we are going to take a look also

at what was in the box that I received this week.

I had a lovely surprise.

There was a big, strong man standing at my door with a large package.

I didn't see that.

And to be honest with you, it cheered me up a lot.

So he let me hold the package in my hand, right?

I took it in the house and we haven't had an assault charge then.

And what happened next is well,

is what happened next.

So at the start of today's live stream, I showed you this package.

It arrived yesterday and it was delivered to my house in the morning.

A nice surprise.

It was a nice man with a package.

It was this package.

And I'm always happy to see a package at my door,

especially when it's a large one like this.

Let's have a look then.

Without any more waiting, let us open the box.

Right. It's the moment of truth.

Let's have a look. What is inside the box?

Is it something nice?

Or maybe it is something not so nice.

We will see.

Opening the box right now.

Oh, very interesting.

Oh, inside the box,

the mystery box that was delivered yesterday. Oh.

Oh, my goodness.

A letter.

A personal letter

from.

From YouTube.

Very nice.

You did it.

One mission, one channel and one more thing.

1 million subscribers.

Congratulations.

You may have started with just a few viewers, but your incredible voice, passion

and creativity has now touched the lives of so many people around the world.

Yes, that is true.

And the community that you've built is immeasurably

enriched by the stories that you've shared as you bring people together.

Isn't that nice? Very nice.

Finally, the unveiling of what is in the box.

Oh, my goodness.

And guess what it says

on the front

presented to English addict with Mr.

Duncan for passing 1 million subscribers.

It is my YouTube play button.

It has arrived.

So there it is.

It's official.

I now have a YouTube play button.

My gold one.

Of course I haven't got a silver one because I reached

100,000 subscribers before they started making these.

So that's the reason why I don't have a silver

award.

The other thing I've noticed is it's incredibly heavy.

I don't know what it's made of, but it weighs a ton.

It's not real gold, is it?

Yeah, it might be.

So here we go.

Let's have a look at it in all its glory.

Wow. Okay.

I have to say, that is.

That is pretty neat.

It's official.

I have my official gold clay button from YouTube.

Thank you very much, YouTube, for sending this to me.

And I suppose also I should say thank you as my subscribers,

each one of you has allowed me to receive this.

And of course it's taken a long time to get to this point.

16 years it's taken me.

But here we are.

We've arrived finally at 1 million subscribers.

And to prove it, I have my gold play button.

Thank you, everyone.

Thank you very much. Thank you, YouTube.

And thanks a lot to you for watching me

and supporting me for all these years

and here it is

in all its glory.

My YouTube golden button.

I have to say I'm really impressed with this.

It's so heavy.

I actually thought maybe it was a piece of gold.

It's very reflective. Yes.

I wonder if that's actually a gold in the mirror.

It's it's I must admit I'm quite impressed.

And they actually got the spelling right of your channel.

Yes. And everything.

And the letter was personally signed, actually, not just a rip off signature.

Not a printed signature. Yeah.

An actual pen written signature

from the CEO of YouTube, Susie, as I call her. Yes.

So there it is.

So it's now official.

I have my gold play button.

I think it will be a long time before I get my diamond play button.

Is that for 2 million?

That is I think I think it must be for 10 million.

So when you reach 10 million subscribers,

I think you get a diamond one.

It's the most amazing looking thing.

But I'll have to say this looks pretty cool as well.

It does.

So there it is.

It's official English addict with Mr. Duncan.

Congratulations for passing 1 million subscribers.

And our guest says, where is the champagne?

Well, yes, we were live when, of course, Mr.

Duncan achieved a 1 million subscribers, some ago.

It's taken a while for this to arrive from YouTube.

But if you remember, if any of you were watching at the time or have seen the video, when was that?

Well, that would have been around,

I want to say end of July, because your mother was staying here.

That's right.

So somewhere around the end of July, there is a live stream

where we actually counted out when we got to a million subscribers.

The only problem was it kept dropping back down and going back up.

So we had to celebrate about ten times before it stopped going back down.

But we did it and we did drink lots of champagne.

But today we can't, you see, because I said so many things

that I now regret during that live stream, we were drunk.

Olga says she remembers it.

So yes, it was quite funny.

It was it's They kept going up and down, up and down.

We kept we celebrated about 20 times reaching a million because it reached a million.

And then it went down again. And then it went back to Germany.

And then it went down again. It went on and on and on.

But it was quite good fun.

And because of that, I got drunk and I said things.

I said things that maybe now, on reflection,

maybe I should not have said, but I said it and.

It's out there.

It's in the public domain now and you haven't been cancelled, so you're fine.

The thing I can do about it. Hello, Jemmy.

Well-deserved. Mr. Duncan and Mr. Steve.

You deserve that.

You deserved that ten years ago.

Well, I suppose so.

The thing is, and I think it's worth mentioning ing,

there are very few people

who are still active on YouTube

who were around when I started

doing this way back in 2006.

So I don't want to keep talking about this because I'm sure it's boring for you.

But when I started, there were

lots of people on YouTube, but not many.

Not many because it was in its very early days.

So you might describe me as one of the original YouTubers.

In fact, I was the first ever English English teacher

on YouTube way back in 2006.

But there are very few people on now still

producing content who were on at the same time as I was.

So it's I still think it's quite amazing that

I'm still here 16 years later, despite all of the problems

and all of the trouble that I've had with YouTube and all of the publishers and music publishers

and all of the copyright claims and all of the small disputes

that I've had with of people and I've had to get them sorted out, lots of problems.

The algorithm changes and of course the algorithms that the algorithm

you should this should be an award for how long you've been producing on YouTube.

I think that should have its own reward that we ought to suggest that to

YouTube, would write to Suzy and suggest that

she gives out awards for longevity.

Yeah, because it's relatively easy to get

100,000

subscribers and a lot of people have got a million subscribers.

But, you know, that might only do it for two or three years and then give up, whereas Mr.

Duncan's been doing it for 15 years anyway.

And the fact that the thing is, the success on YouTube is not about time,

it is about eyes on the screen.

And that's that's all most people think about.

It's a bit like TV companies as well.

When they make a TV show, all they really interested in

are the numbers of eyes watching their shows,

because that means that there are other things

that will then happen ad revenue, for example.

So it's always good when you have lots of people watching,

but the length of time that you've been doing it for

quite often isn't as important.

And on YouTube that is definitely the case.

I think so.

So today we are where we've had the celebration.

So so it's now official.

I don't know where I'm going to put it.

Someone just asked where I was going to stick it.

I might put it on the wall.

Although there isn't much wall space in here

because everywhere is soundproofed, so I'll try and find somewhere to put it.

But that is the only time you're going to see my YouTube

gold button so you won't see it again.

So that's it? That's it.

It's done, Lewis remembers that you were drunk in the end and he didn't like to see you like that.

Oh, I see. Yes. It was an emotional

time for Mr.

Duncan because

he's reached my age, reached 1 million subscribers.

But he also knew that he was being held back by the

algorithms on YouTube, which which only favour certain.

Anyway, we won't go into that. Right.

We've mentioned that before. That's it.

Let's get on and teach.

Do you want to say something nice? We just did.

Well, you're going to see something equally as nice.

Say the bird that was hanging around our garden

a few weeks ago has returned.

Yes, there it is.

Do you remember what it's called?

Was it the Pied Wagtail?

It is.

Your camera there makes it look gigantic.

It does.

Makes it look like it's about

two feet across. Yes.

They're not they're not very large birds.

They are slightly larger than a robin, but not as large as a black bird.

So the way you filmed it, that makes it look gigantic. Yes.

Look, as big as a pigeon, I have slowed it down slightly as well

to give it so you can see the detail more clearly.

But there it is. The Wagtail.

The Pied Wagtail has returned to the garden.

It doesn't look very happy though.

It's a very timid bird.

So that's the reason why I'm so surprised that it's actually come into the garden.

It's only about ten centimetres long, isn't it?

Probably, I would say yes.

It's well, as I said, it's like slightly larger than a robin.

In fact it's quite violent towards other birds, even robins.

So it will attack robins if the robins come down.

But there it is, a very unusual bird.

We don't normally get them in the garden.

There are lots of them in much Wenlock around

the recreation ground and there is a pigeon going by

which you can get the scale.

Now you see the pigeon looks the size of a dinosaur.

It does look like a dinosaur because I've slowed the video down.

But where? Oh, there it is.

Old man from Bangkok is here today.

Oh, I noticed earlier because we did mention on

that the celebrations going on

in certain parts of the world, China

and the east, as we call it, from where we are,

because in Vietnam, it was the year of the cat, wasn't it?

So very strange?

Where are you celebrating, old man?

From Bangkok, as you call yourself.

I'm not saying that that's what you call yourself.

Were you celebrating your lunar New Year on Sunday?

Is that why you weren't here? That must be you. Them?

Yes, it is. Yes.

One of our regular viewers from from Thailand.

Hello to So, yes, the Lunar New Year is celebrated across Asia.

But the interesting thing, Thailand.

Yes, I thought Vietnam. I got that wrong then, didn't I?

The interesting thing is that the rabbit

is the official lunar New Year animal for this year.

But in Vietnam, they are celebrating the year of the cat,

which caused quite a lot of confusion.

And Jim is here as well from Hong Kong as well.

Yeah, who knows that will also have been celebrating the Lunar New Year,

which will be the rabbit, won't it?

It is

most most countries are celebrating the year, the rabbit.

So it's only Vietnam that's decided to go to the pussycat in Staffordshire.

Can I also mention the fact that in China lots of people move around?

In fact, it is the largest movement

of human beings on the planet

during the the Chinese New Year.

So when that happens, it is the largest movement.

So imagine hundreds of middle lines of people

travelling to different parts of the country in which they live.

So in China, lots of people live hundreds,

maybe two or 3000 miles away.

So it takes a very long time to travel

because quite often there are no direct links.

So if you travel by road in China, you might find that you travel

twice the distance, even though you're not travelling that far.

If you were going directly from one place to another.

So flying, travelling by train, by the way,

I have experienced travelling by train overnight in China

and let's just say it's a

very interesting experience.

I was sleeping in a bunk bed.

There were three bunks, one at the bottom, one in the middle

and one at the top, and I was in the middle

and unfortunate, the guy above me

kept kept farting.

And that's my first memory of being in China.

After arriving there, I had to travel for 13 hours by train

from Beijing to the place where I was working.

And the guy above me, he kept farting during the night and that's my first memory.

And he stayed for four years.

No rhubarb. See here today. Smile.

Hello, Rhubarb, rhubarb, rhubarb.

Congratulations.

A lot of people have congratulated you, Mr. Duncan,

but yeah.

So, yes, it's. It's.

It's great that you've had that recognition.

Yes, right.

It's very nice. Move on, as they say.

So we might describe an anniversary

as something that is maybe significant,

maybe something that is significant

or perhaps also important as well.

So we might say that an anniversary or a date

or maybe a moment, maybe a moment of time as it passes.

So maybe something that happens to you during a certain

period of time might become significant.

And the word significant can also be

used to describe something important,

something notable something momentous.

I like that one, because you've got a moment in that word.

So it is momentous.

It is worthy of remembering.

It is a moment that will stay in your mind.

It is momentous.

It is noteworthy.

So may be something that you actually write down in your diary.

You write it down somewhere.

You say, Oh, today I received

my gold play button from YouTube.

So that would be noteworthy.

Something that is worth recording or writing down.

There's another expression which has crept into the English language

called significant other.

Well, we might be looking at that in the moment.

Oh, right.

Okay. Right. Yes, I of course.

I don't know what Mr. Duncan's preparing.

I just come into this totally unprepared.

This is all completely spontaneous, By the way, Considerable

is another way of expressing significant.

Considerable.

Something is significant, maybe something noticeable.

A large thing can also be described as significant.

Maybe there is a storm coming your way

and they might describe it as a significant storm, something that is large,

something that might be destructive, can be significant as well.

Large, considerable, noteworthy and momentous.

Notable and important.

So these are all synonyms.

Are they for significant?

Generally? Yes. Yes.

So you can use all of those instead of significant,

but but generally speaking, something large.

Something large might be significant, especially if it may

or may not cause destruction damage

or maybe a disturbance of some sort.

So as Mr.

Steve rightly said, and you did say it rightly,

we can describe the person in our life,

maybe that special person of soul mate,

maybe we can describe them as the significant overlap.

So your significant other

is your partner, maybe your husband, your wife?

Yes. Your girlfriend, your boyfriend, maybe your live in lover who?

And this phrase people might wonder why

this phrase is used.

I'm not sure how long it's been used,

but I do know about three or four years ago at work.

They certainly asked us for the names of our,

as they described it, our significant other.

And a number of us didn't know what that meant.

And it's a phrase that you said that

people don't have to say whether they're married or not.

And so you don't have to identify whether you've got a wife or a husband or a boyfriend or a girlfriend.

Maybe you don't want to tell people what that is.

So the phrase significant other covers all those possible.

It is, yes.

And know about you having to reveal

because some people might say, well, I don't want to say whether I'm married or not.

Why should I say it's my wife or my husband?

Yeah, You know, it's

people thinking that it's being that they're being discriminated against in some way.

Yeah.

Or maybe it's a personal thing and they don't want to tell other people. So.

So these days we often use the word partner or partner.

Yes. Yes, partner is very commonly used.

So maybe.

Are you married or do you have a partner?

So that's a more polite way of saying,

do you have someone maybe you are living with them and you're not married.

But these days, to be honest, these days

no one really cares about that in this country.

So if you are married or if you're not married,

you can describe that person as your significant other.

They are the special person in your life or partner.

I think they're pretty much interchangeable. I don't know

why significant other would be used in place of partner.

Maybe you don't like the word partner.

Maybe.

Well, I think I think this is general anyway, even if you're married to them.

Yes, I know.

But I don't know why you wouldn't say, partner, as a way of getting round that,

having to reveal whether you're married or not married or whether you've got a girlfriend or boyfriend.

Well, this is a sort of romantic way of saying as well.

It's quite a it's quite a romantic way when you say your significant other,

it's the person who is closest to you.

They know all of your darkest secrets.

May they know everything about you.

Yeah.

Because partner could mean a partner in business

or upon that partner, it doesn't

necessarily mean you're having a relationship with that person romantically,

where a significant other definitely means it's

a romantic relationship where his partner could.

You could say, Oh, John is my partner,

And somebody might say, Oh, does he mean partner in business or are they lovers?

You know, it's is a bit of confusion with the word partner.

I think so.

Significant other means you don't want to tell

you want to tell people you've got somebody significant in your life. Yes.

And a romantic relationship.

But you don't want to necessarily tell them whether it's a man or a woman,

whether you're married or not divorced or whatever.

It just makes it it just it's just a neutral way of saying

that you are attached to someone or maybe just that

you have someone special in your life says she says Hi.

Oh, very good to see you both.

It's good to see you here as well.

And there she said.

My significant other doesn't speak English very well, but often watches.

We watch together.

Oh, so we know that your significant other we don't know who they are

and we wouldn't pry into that.

But you've said that's great, has a great reviews in that sentence

using that phrase.

Okay.

Another another use now of significant

difficult event.

So I suppose I've mentioned this earlier about our 10th

anniversary living here in much Wenlock.

So we moved ten years ago today.

We arrived here everywhere was covered with snow,

everywhere was covered with snow completely.

And I remember the removal van.

There was a huge lorry with all of our belongings inside

and it was having difficulty getting it some of the hills, unfortunately.

So that for us is a significant event.

Yeah, it could be a significant event.

Could be an anniversary, could be a birthday or it could be,

you know, the ending of a war, the start of a war

or when something really momentous happens, like when Princess Diana died.

That is a significant, well, probably momentous event.

But it can be significant in the fact that changes occurred after that.

So it was a point of time where things altered.

Yes. And quite often unexpectedly as well.

So it can be used for negative things as well as positive things.

Yes. Yes.

I mean, COVID was a significant event because it's had it's

led to many changes in the way

that we do things in the structure of society and everything.

So that was probably. Yes, significant event.

Yeah, I think so.

I think it's safe to say it's something that you will remember because it's had repercussions.

Maybe your your wedding, maybe the day you got married,

maybe the the day your significant other

became your husband or wife.

Oh, very nice.

So we can use that in many ways.

I suppose also we can describe how important something is.

So we we might say this significant

of something, how important something is.

So the significance you are maybe

looking at a certain subject or an event and you were deciding

you were deciding how important

that particular thing was or is so significance

of something is how important something is.

So the significance of us moving here

was important.

It was a big event because you were changing

a lot of the parts of your life that you've become used to.

So if you live in one place for a long time and then you move somewhere else,

it is a significant moment.

There is a lot of significance involved with that event

because it's seen as very important.

So I think it's it's a it's a good word to use, and we often use it in English

when we are talking about things that are important.

For example, TASS yesterday

was having a significant day because it was his birthday.

Who else is having a birthday today?

Thank you, sir.

The Lenski for Lenski, president of

the Ukraine.

And as I said, he's probably getting, you know, 200 tanks

coming from various parts of Europe.

So that would be a lovely birthday present for him.

You see, you seem to like talking about that point.

Well, I think it's significant. Okay.

That probably Germany are going to announce that they're going to allow

these tanks to be to be used in the battlefields

because up until now they've been resisting doing that.

Isn't the UK sending tanks as well as sending some challenger tanks?

Ah, I think they said that.

Oh, they're a bit heavy and they might sink in the mud there a bit. Yes.

Apparently the leopard tanks, although they're much older, they're much faster.

I saw them last night, they were, they go really fast

and they've got, they've got a very interesting shape.

The shape the shape of them is is quite different from

from what you would think of the of the tank

that you see used in, say, in World War Two.

They're fast, they're nimble, they're easy to maintain.

And the weapons, the shells, they use a much easier it's

much easier to train people in using them.

I think that a much more practical tank, whereas our tank is a bit

is a bit more difficult to learn how to to use.

And I don't think either.

I think our taxes sort of better protected with armoury, but they're not as good,

you know, to be able to use this versatile, which is versatile.

And I imagine that though imagine having a tank

and you could park anywhere no one is ever going to to, to

to argue with you on the road, although you might say that the modern car,

a large SUV car, which Mr.

Steve, how you get me started.

Don't get me started, Mr. Grey.

A significant event.

Mr. Steve hates SUV.

They are a little bit like small tanks driving around on the road.

Yes, Vilnius is separating its town

near a 700 year birthday.

Who is Vilnius? The capital.

Oh, where Palmira is.

So the place itself is separate.

Submarine seven, Rebirth two. That's quite. That is

momentous.

Mohammed wants to drive a tank.

I presume?

You mean a tank, not an SUV.

Mind you, that's sort of the same thing.

Yeah, they're almost as heavy.

They're almost as heavy. That's what they ought to do.

They ought to

Everyone in the West who's got a giant SUV

should donate that for use in the war in Ukraine, because,

you know, that four wheel drive, they can they can get to the battlefield and get troops there.

Anything they're missing is the large gun on the top.

You could probably put one of those on top, couldn't you?

Please, please don't give people ideas.

I'd say that's what they should do with SUVs.

Everyone that owns one should be forced to give them up

and send them to the battlefields in Ukraine

to be used as a troop transport.

I often talk to my studio.

I'd love to see it.

I'd love to see that has been blown up by tanks.

Can we move on? Yeah.

I often talk to my students about the significance

of learning English by listening to native speakers.

Says You should.

So thank you very much.

And he's actually sent the link to this live stream.

So if there are any of your students

or any students of shit watching at the moment,

hello to you and I hope you are enjoying listening to this

native English conversation

and we will continue to do our best, and especially Mr.

Duncan, to improve, which is somebody,

somebody else mentioned that earlier.

Carry on improving in what you do

because of course you mustn't stand still in what you do.

You must always seek to improve on what you are doing.

And I can't remember who it was. I always try my best.

Oh, that It was Emilio. Emilio Lopez.

There's a name that that is very nice to say.

Emilio Lopez.

It's it. It.

It comes off the tongue very easily, doesn't it?

Unlike Sash.

Sash, which who we now call double sash.

Because that's easier to say, huh?

Well, that was fascinating.

I know.

Did you know yesterday, Steve, it was National Compliment Day.

Oh, yesterday Across the UK, we were encouraged

to say nice things about other people.

We were encouraged to say lovely things about each other.

Maybe the way we look or maybe something that we have.

Maybe we are wearing a beautiful new dress and they say, Oh,

that is a beautiful dress that you're wearing.

Where did you buy it from?

And that is a type of compliment.

You are saying something nice.

Oh, so yesterday across the UK where we were

all encouraged to say something nice.

So I want I want you

to give me a compliment, Mr.

Duncan.

You look 20 years younger than your actual age,

but it's not that.

Is that a real compliment, or are you just patronising me?

Probably a bit of both.

No, I'm not very vetiver, but yes, but I didn't hear about this.

Mr. Duncan.

Well, it wasn't, was it? On the news?

It wasn't on the news, no, exactly.

So it wasn't a significant event, but it was a thing

that is done every year just to encourage people to be nice to each other.

For example, I might say.

Mr.. Mr..

Steve, that is a lovely shirt you're wearing.

Why, thank you, Mr.

Duncan Where did you buy it from?

I had it's just a birthday present from you.

For me, I was going to say it must be a very generous person with good taste.

See where this is going?

Who bought this for you?

They must be a wonderful human being.

I really must.

Yes. Compliment.

And yes, this sort of helps the wheels of society

and, you know, just helps people talking.

Or is Mr.

Steve famously said it moves the oil, the oil of society.

He gets moved, it moves the oil. It's nothing.

Everybody likes compliments, don't they?

Well, the thing is, it might have been Compliment Day yesterday

in the UK, but I didn't know about it

and I don't know anybody else that did so it can't have been very well advertised.

It was very much publicised on the internet, well made.

Maybe everybody got confused and thought that it was a compliment.

Which is part of your immune system.

Oh, I see.

And that meant it was we celebrating the compliment. Yes.

Which is something to do with your immune system.

Then don't ask me what it is.

It's something to do with antibodies.

But I can't remember.

We've reached the end of Mr. Steve knowledge on that.

One might not even call it that anymore.

So to compliment someone, if you compliment someone, you say something

nice, you offer a positive remark.

And I think sometimes we are afraid to give compliments nowadays,

especially if you are a man and maybe you are giving a compliment to a woman.

So I think you have to be a little bit careful because it might be misunderstood

as some sort of harassment

or some sort of verbal assault.

So you do have to be careful when you are giving compliments and who you give them to.

Although it's been a long time since I've received any compliments

personally face to face, to be honest, because some people think that if you're complimenting

their appearance, it's a chat up line, then they

some some not Mad Men men would would soak it up.

Oh, haven't you got a lovely muscular figure.

So if if a woman compliments a man, he loves it.

He loves it.

But if you say to a woman, Oh, haven't you got a lovely figure,

Sometimes the woman might be a bit offended.

Might think you're trying to chatter.

Oh, well, well, magnificent breasts you have.

Yes, that probably isn't.

You know, that wouldn't go down very well.

But unless, of course, they just had an enhanced statement.

Yes, maybe they've made them larger.

Maybe they've just had some silicone implants and they're wearing a very revealing dress.

And therefore.

But would it be appropriate to make a comment on that and probably not.

No, No, please.

If there are any men listening, I know that Andrew Tate,

a very famous influencer, he would probably say that that's okay.

But here and English addict,

we are saying that it's not a good idea

because you might get you might get a slap, a slap in the face.

There's a time and a place to say that.

And of course, the other thing is if you if somebody is the phrase

that you can use, if a salesperson oh, okay.

Is giving you lots of compliments because they want you

to buy something off them, they're buttering you up. Yes.

Don't forget compliment.

Making compliments is a very big part of sales.

So our background, yes, mine and Steve's,

our backgrounds are both involved in sales.

And I do know for a fact that one of the things I was taught

many years ago in my younger days,

say nice things to your customers, say nice things, compliment them

and you often find that that person will be more relaxed.

So in sales you will find compliments are often made to customers,

but you've got to with experience, you can say it

in a way that doesn't come across as false.

So obviously if you just meet somebody for the first time,

a new customer, you don't sort of heap lots of compliments on that.

Oh, what a lovely dress having.

You got a lovely room.

Your business is fantastic in it.

What a lovely staff. Yeah.

It's got to be, it's got to be genuine, it's got to come from a genuine

desire to say something. Yes.

Or maybe believe it, or maybe it is a real compliment.

Oh, your hair looks good today.

Oh, I was just admiring your hair.

Isn't it lovely?

See, I learnt as a salesperson that sometimes, even if there was something to compliment,

it wasn't the right time or the place to do it.

Because it would.

Could come across that you are complimenting them in the hope that they will buy something off you.

And if the customer perceives it in that way,

then you might not get the sale.

Even if even if you are being genuine about it,

it's probably best not to until you get to know them a bit better.

Mohammed El Fahd says cultures are different.

A compliment in some cultures might be offensive in another.

And I think this is true.

So maybe if you are complimenting someone on their personal appearance

in some cultures that would actually be seen as offensive.

Even though you are saying something nice about them

and you are complimenting them,

their appearance, their clothes, or maybe their face,

it would seen as as quite disrespectful.

So you do have to be careful, even if it's if it's genuine,

your compliments might be genuine, but it could still be offensive.

You might not have any intention of trying to chat

that person up or become romantically involved.

And you just see something and you think, Oh, what lovely hair, or you have skin or something,

but you have to sometimes probably the best to say

nothing until you get to know somebody better.

But certainly

going the opposite and telling that

telling the truth is probably not going to help. Are you?

That you wouldn't meet somebody and say, Oh, I do you mind me saying

I think I don't like your hairstyle, I think you should change it.

It doesn't suit you.

You know, they're probably the worst thing you could say to a woman would be, I don't like your hair.

I've said I think the worst thing you could say and I think I think it might be

if you if you think that a woman is pregnant and she is another one.

Oh, hello there.

Oh, I believe I believe there are congratulations that I should be giving you.

And the woman will say why they said, Oh, well, you're pregnant.

You appear to have a little frenzied view.

Yeah. When is your baby coming?

And the woman says, I'm not pregnant?

No, this is. This is just me.

Yes. So you are you are basically saying

that that person looks overweight so that is, you know, the opposite of what you're trying to achieve.

Sometimes giving a compliment can get you into a lot of trouble.

I mean, it says my hair always looks neat and tidy.

It does look, it just suits you.

Some people and this is something we've talked about.

Some men look good.

Bald know.

I don't know how it works yet.

Other men, you see them sometimes and their head is a very strange shape.

It looks sometimes it looks like two heads have been have been joined together.

And it has a strange sort of ripple in the middle.

But, Mr.

Steve, I think you have good head for baldness. So.

So you're quite lucky that I'm always jealous of black guys.

Black guys always look great.

It doesn't matter how old they are or what they look like.

They always look great and cool.

Bald. Samuel L Jackson who?

Who can wear a bald head

any cooler than Samuel L Jackson.

And it was cool on black people.

I will tell you who model Mr.

Steve wears it Well, baldness always looks cool on a black guy, but on a white guy,

unless it's really shaved tightly, it can look a bit anyway, I think you know what I'm saying.

Yes, Christine, as we've just mentioned, false, false compliments.

So saying something you don't really mean

can often be used to get something.

You want something back in return from that person.

Either you want them to buy something or you're trying to get into bed with them

or something like that.

So, yes.

And Daria says, Your ears look gorgeous today.

Oh, thank you. Thank you. Oh, do you mean it?

Is it You're just trying to get round me?

Is it your ears, though? Mine?

Yes. If you're

trying to get round somebody, that is a good expression.

Are you trying to get round me?

In other words, are you trying to

get a favour from that person?

If you're trying to get round somebody, it means you're trying to smooch them,

trying to get something from them as well.

You used a good expression earlier to butter someone up to better them up.

You are saying nice things because want something from you, want something, whatever it could be.

You want something, it might could be anything.

It could be.

It doesn't have to be.

It could be anything you want. Something from that person.

Money normally could be money.

Yes. To compliment someone.

So let's have a look at some synonyms to compliment someone you give praise.

You give an accolade like my accolade,

maybe my praise that I received from YouTube.

I received it in the form of an award.

You give an accolade, you commend someone, you commend them.

You give them a nice compliment.

You say something to them.

Maybe they did a very good job of something.

Maybe they are very good in their workplace.

You extol That's a great word.

You extol a person's virtues.

You are talking about their character and the way they behave.

You are talking about them in a very complimentary way.

Exalt a only to exalt someone is to honour them.

You are praising them.

You are being very complimentary.

You are making compliments.

Yes. Often used in religious

tones.

Isn't it exaltation

to exalt the Lord?

Yes. High honour?

Yes, that's it.

You also laud someone, you Lord them.

So I think that's also used in the word applause.

So you applause, you give applause or you applaud someone.

So Lord is also a compliment.

You can load it up, can't you? Yes.

And load it up, which means you sort of

you're sort of bragging about yourself.

Yeah. So it can be used negatively. Yes.

And finally, the word honour can also be the type of compliment as well.

You are saying something nice.

Before we go,

there is a common confusion that takes place,

that takes place in the English language.

The words compliment and compliment.

They are both pronounced in the same way.

So the word compliment, the way I've been describing it

today, spelt with an eye in the middle

means to praise someone.

You give them a nice comment, you will pleasant towards someone.

And then we have compliment with an E in the middle.

And this refers to suitable supplies for something.

Maybe if you are in the army and you are going to a to an area where there is a war,

you might need your complement, you might need your suitable supplies.

And also if you match something,

things that match each other, they complement each other.

They go together very well.

And in the military, a group of service

personnel might also be a complement as well.

A complement of people.

A complement of troops.

And as I said, just two things that go together very well.

Some people might say that we complement each other because we go together

very well and man and wife

often in a marriage,

two people are well suited in personality

and you say that they complement

each other not complement.

MM Yes.

So two things matching together, they complement each other.

Do you pronounce it much the same way?

Much the same way, to be honest with you.

So complement, complement.

But generally speaking, when people are using these words

in everyday English, they will be pronounced in a similar way.

So I think there isn't any need to get too worried about the pronunciation.

There probably is a slight difference, but to be honest, it's not worth worrying about.

And that is almost it for today.

We've almost come to the end.

Today's live stream.

Almost. Almost.

Does that mean something else?

Well, there will be us saying goodbye.

So thank you very much. Feel company today.

And also your lovely words of praise,

your compliments about my English.

Live streams and also about what is happening

with my little award

that I got this week from YouTube.

As well. We are back on Sunday.

Okay. Sunday 2 p.m.

UK. Time is when we're back with you.

So we are back on Sunday.

We will be here live. I will be here.

Will you be here?

I will do.

I don't think I'm doing anything on Sunday.

Don't think I have any significant event.

Oh, very good. On Sunday.

So I will be here.

All being well.

Yes, it's all being well.

We will be back with you on Sunday.

Thank you very much for your company.

I hope you've enjoyed today's live stream.

And we will be back hours, by the way, on Sunday, a whole 2 hours.

No one else does that on YouTube.

We are the only people who do a two hour live English stream

every Sunday from 2 p.m.

UK time.

We are going now. Thank you, Mr. Steve.

Thank you, Mr.

Duncan, and congratulations again on your YouTube play button for 1 million subscribers.

Thank you for all complementing

complementing with an eye Mr.

Duncan on his achievement and I look forward to seeing you all again on Sunday.

Thank you very much.

All I have to say now is thank you very much for watching.

Thank you for being with me.

Whether you've been with us for a couple of years,

a couple of days, or for the whole 16 years,

all I can say is you are very brave.

See you on Sunday.

And of course, until the next time we meet, you know what's coming next.

Yes You do?

Until Sunday.

ta ta for now.