It's FABuary 12th / 28 days of Learning English / LIVE chat from England - Friends

gong xi fa choi happy tet i hope you have a super duper day here we are yes we are back

together oh it's very nice to see you here today i feel like singing a song but i won't

here we go again yes it is time for another what is it is it day 12 i can't believe we

have made it all the way to day 12 of 28 days of february welcome everyone we are here once

again on this very special day how are you today

yes we are all here together again nice to see you it's very nice to see you in fact

hi everybody this is mr duncan in england how are you today are you okay i hope so are

you feeling happy on this very special day because this is the first day of the new lunar

year and there i have my little ox in the corner of the studio there sitting there waiting

to be fed i just hope it doesn't do a poop on my head or my shoulder so for those wondering

who i am my name is duncan i talk about english i've been on youtube forever such a long time

do you know how long i've been on here for nearly 15 years i started doing this way back

in 2006 when youtube was just

a little baby many years ago and i'm still here

doing it now some people say mr duncan you are the best kept secret on youtube and yes

you might be right about that so as i mentioned yes it is a special day today it is the first

day of the new lunar year and i thought i would say to everyone celebrating a happy

lunar new year to you

dog

happy new year if you are watching in vietnam can i say happy tet yes it is the new year

the lunar new year for those who follow the moon as it goes across the sky happy new year

to you i hope you enjoyed that yes i've been busy in the studio this morning busily editing

things as usual i seem to spend most of my time either standing here talking to you or

sitting sitting by my computer editing so those are the two things that i spend most

of my time doing talking about spending time today we're going to talk about something

now i hope you don't mind me asking but here's a question for you what have you been doing

during lockdown time have you taken up a new hobby have you been doing something to pass

the time away have you discovered perhaps a new talent something you didn't know you

could do so what have you been doing during lockdown time if you want to tell me about

that later on you can also we are talking all about friends it is commonly believed

that we all need friends in our lives we all need someone that we feel close to maybe a

person we can confide in confide if you confide in someone it means you tell someone something

that maybe you want to keep a secret so a person you can trust is a person you can confide

in you see do you have many friends and if you do who is your longest friend so which

person or what person in your life have you been friends with the longest all of that

coming up later on and also a new feature that we are doing every friday we have the

first of our new features my favourite corner so what i've decided to do i've decided to

take a photograph in my house and it is a place that is my favourite place it is my

favourite corner in the house and here it is so there it is now historic you might say

a historic moment of time occurring right now on youtube my favourite corner why is

this corner my favourite corner well the reason why i love this corner so much is because

it is a place that i like to stand and i can look out of the window in my bedroom and i

can watch the birds flying by i can watch the pigeons i can watch so many things i can

look up at the blue sky if there is any

so i thought something interesting today something different my favourite corner do you have

a favourite corner in your house is there a corner in your house that you love so much

maybe it is a place where you spend lots of time i know these days i have been spending

a lot of time in my favourite corner i have to be honest with you if you have one maybe

you have your favourite corner maybe a corner in your house you can always send me a photograph

of your favourite corner and i will give you my email address now i will put it on the

screen here it is it's coming now hold on i'm finding the right button

i'm still learning how to use this equipment to be honest so here it is yes here it is

right now if you want to stay in touch you can send your favourite corner photographs

to this email address so there it is it's on the screen now if you want to send me your

favourite corner

a place in your house where you like to stand or sit but it must be a corner it has to be

a corner you see and then next friday we will show them on the live stream for those wondering

mr duncan how many times are you on this month well all you have to do is count the badges

on my hat so today it is day number 12 and i am with you every day so between now and

the end of february or as i like to call it february i will be with you every single day

can you believe it so it's true and today is day 12. not only that but we have made

it to the end of the week once more yes it's

friday

yes we are together on friday i hope you are having a super duper day where you are i don't

know where you are in the world but if you want to tell me where you are feel free to

tell me exactly where you are in the world it is a busy few days we have many things

going on here at the moment not only here in the uk but also around the world but there

is the lunar new year today but also on sunday it is oh it is a day for people to get together

to spend time together feeling romantic it is a time for those who are in love to express

their feelings and maybe a person who is looking for love perhaps sunday will be the day when

you find your perfect match

yes it is valentine's day on sunday are you ready do you normally give valentine's cards

to your partner or your lover or maybe you give some sort of gift so on sunday we have

valentine's day oh and next tuesday can you believe it next tuesday it is pancake day

yes we have pancake day next week and i don't know why i can't say pancake for some reason

i don't know why i find it very difficult to say the word pancake there we go i can

say it next tuesday it is pancake day and we will be making some pancakes live on youtube

on tuesday not only that but also next tuesday it is mr steve's birthday you see i did tell

you that this month was going to be a busy month we have the lunar new year today on

sunday we have valentine's day next tuesday it's pancake day and also mr steve's birthday

the big question is will mr steve be joining us here now i have been trying to persuade

steve to take next tuesday off so he can join us here on his birthday i want mr steve here

in the studio to join us live and then we can all share mr steve's big birthday with

him and yes it is a big one i won't tell you how old mr steve will be next week we will

we will leave it until next tuesday so yes i'm hoping that steve will be with us next

tuesday which is his birthday and also pancake day a very busy few days ahead in fact for

me it's a very busy month because i'm doing all sorts of things a few people have asked

mr duncan will you be playing spot the white van today yes i will be playing it however

some people are complaining they are saying mr duncan it's too easy you are making it

too easy maybe you should be spotting something else how about spot the penny farthing yes

you don't see many penny farthings on the road here in the uk or anywhere around the

world so maybe mr duncan you could play spot the penny farthing maybe we could look out

for one of those or perhaps we could look out for a flying saw set we could play spot

the martian or spot the flying saucer but no we're not going to do either of those things

instead we are going to play spot the white van and we are going to play it right now

let's have a look out the window it is a beautiful day outside i've just realized the sun is

shining everything is so nice and there it is there is the view outside right now and

without any more hesitating we will play spot the white van all you have to do is spot the

white van we are looking for a white van can you see the white van there is a white van

somewhere driving around all you have to do is spot the white fan but where is it where

are you white fan where are you we are waiting for you did you see it did you see the white

van yes i i i saw it as well i did i just saw a white van

i think we've had our white van i wonder if we can see another one well there is a red

van but we are looking for a white fan it must be white

a few more seconds hopefully we will see another white van i want to see another one before

we continue ah yes there it is there is a white van proving once again that here in

england we have many white vans driving around on the road how far away is that road from

where you are the road that you were looking at just is around six maybe seven miles away

so it is quite far away that road fortunately i have a super powerful camera and i can zoom

right in on that road we might play it later on we might play it again we will see yes

i think we had three vans i think it was i think there were three vans well spotted so

that there were two vans and there was another van as well yes i saw it i saw it out of the

corner of my eye

did you see yesterday we had so many vans going by yesterday it was really busy yesterday

with all of the vans going past so we have the lunar new year wherever you are in the

world i have a feeling that we we won't have many people watching by the way in asia so

i think there will be very few people watching my live stream right now across asia because

most people are celebrating the lunar new year you see

and i have gone to so much trouble to make that lovely greeting for all those celebrating

the lunar new year so if you are celebrating i have a feeling that you are not watching

if you are if you are celebrating the new year the lunar new year can i say happy lunar

new year to you it is the year of the ox

oh happy happy happy happy lunar year it is the year of the ox

if you are here today and you are celebrating the new year happy new year to you wherever

you are in the world now in vietnam i know that they call it tet so lots of people will

celebrate the lunar new year and they will have lots of family reunions everyone will

get together and have a good time so yes i hope you do have a super duper time it is

friday and we are doing another live stream your eyes do not deceive you it is real it

is true it's happening right now

can i say hello to the live chat i haven't said hello i've just realized oh my goodness

i've just realized i haven't said hello to the live chat for which i apologize oh my

goodness i can't believe it hello to the live chat nice to see you here today

congratulations to beatriz oh beatriz can i just say you have a very fast finger i also

happen to know that vitas isn't here today so beatrice well done congratulations you

are first on today's live stream

that almost

that almost deserves a fancy pants oh beatrice fancy pants

okay that's enough we can't have too much excitement i will never last for the whole

hour otherwise i really do miss george spangles who who is george spangles

i feel as if i should know who george spangles is but i'm not sure oh yes i know i've just

i've just remembered he's one of my own characters that i used to play in one of my english lessons

you're right yes even i forgot i forgot about my own character that i used to play right

here i forgot all about it thank you very much beatrice says i love your fancy pants

oh okay does anyone else want to comment about my fancy pants you are more than welcome to

do so hello also to paulo hello paulo in portugal hello portugal i know your country very well

because i was there a couple of years ago i had a super duper time at a very swanky

hotel a wonderful resort in portugal very nice rosa says do all people in asia celebrate

the lunar new year well many do yes to be honest with you so you might find across asia

many countries are celebrating the lunar new year most people think of china so we we often

say the chinese new year but in fact it is also referring to the lunar new year which

is celebrated across asia so i hope that answers your question her shed is here also sanjar

nice to see you as well rosa we have maria oh maria it's nice to see you here maria hello

also sandra and charlotte is here hello charlotte nice to see you back as well hello miller

miller franco i don't recognize your name is it your first time here if it is your first

time on the live chat please let me know

columbia hello columbia a big hello to you nice to see you here as well rosa oh rosa

has a very interesting question for louis mendes

lewis is it true that french people in general don't like the english language or english

people i have heard that from a brazilian girl who lived in france

this is very interesting now i suppose when we talk about the relationship between england

and france or perhaps britain and france historically we have had our disagreements over the years

let's just say some people feel a little bit bitter about it so that's all i'm saying and

we are not even talking about brexit other things happened in the past you see that's

all i'm saying but i love the french i love french people i love everyone to be honest

around the world you're all super duper as far as i'm concerned and i did meet lots of

french people when i was in paris a couple of years ago and yes very friendly very warm

the one thing i've noticed about french people is they will say what they think

they can be very blunt they can appear quite cold sometimes but i had no problems when

i was in france i had a super duper time

hello miller it is my first time chatting with you today however it is not my first

time watching your material thank you miller it's very kind of you to say very lovely but

as far as i'm concerned i love the french i love all europeans and i do wish that we

were all still together i really do so i'm one of those you see

no not one of those i'm one of those one of those people that voted to stay in europe

so i am not a person who wanted brexit i love europe i i hope before i die i am able to

visit lots of european countries

i really do today we are talking about friendship by the way and also an interesting question

i don't want to seem as if i'm being too nosy or too inquisitive however i would like to

know what you have been doing during lockdown time now i know some countries have not had

lockdown some have including here so here in england we are still in lockdown and it

would appear that many of the lockdown rules will stay in place until autumn can you believe

it so that was one of the newspapers this morning here in the uk reporting that it would

appear that many of the lockdown rules here in england will remain in place until autumn

i don't know how true that is but it it sounds quite serious anyway hello to unicarina also

sora also marietta what have you been doing during lockdown down time i don't know what's

wrong with my voice today it feels as if my throat is turning into sandpaper i don't know

what's happening maybe i've been using my voice too much this month because i have been

with you every day perhaps that has something to do with it

i love your voice and your good sense of humour greetings from mexico thank you maria it's

very kind of you to say so during lockdown and that means the period of time when people

must stay at home so when we say lockdown it means people must stay in one place you

can't go outside you can't move around or travel lock down have you been doing anything

have you been learning a new skill perhaps have you taken up a new hobby so i've been

improving my computer skills during lockdown i've been spending a lot of time as i mentioned

this morning as i mentioned earlier i've been spending a lot of time sitting in front of

my computer doing all sorts of things learning how to use some new software and learning

how to improve myself you can always improve yourself that is one of the things i've really

realized that you can really

improve yourself if you have the time to do it donna says i have learned more english

well i suppose if you are spending every day watching me because i am here every day during

february yes i suppose so kate gann hello kate gann nice to see you back as well i have

started learning music production i'm getting better and better at it yes that sounds interesting

so when you say music project production i'm sure my teeth are coming out today when you

say music production what do you mean do you mean you are writing music or maybe you are

creating music as an mp3 file or something like that sounds very interesting i am intrigued

to find out what that involves

racer hello racer velez who says i met you me i met you during the first lockdown last

year way back in march oh well i'm very pleased to see that you're still with me that's all

i can say i'm really pleased to see that you are still with me on my live streams very

nice

sora sora hamasha says during lockdown i have been drawing i have been doing drawings creating

drawings if you want to show me one of your drawings you are more than welcome to do so

you can send maybe a picture of one of your drawings to my email address and i will show

it on one of my live streams does that sound good i hope so oh well i see kate gann says

yes i am writing and producing using software called ableton live interesting i like it

i know a lot of people like to use their iphones or their ipads to create music i think there

is an app called garageband garageband yes i think so and that allows you to produce

your own music

oh that's interesting hello highly quang and happy tech to you apparently today is a special

day because you can have the year forwards and backwards so whichever way you write it

down it will always be the same

yes you are right the twelfth of the second twenty twenty one and then if you turn it

around and do it backwards it's still the same it's a bit like a palindrome so you might

describe today as palindrome day because it is the same either way round i think so very

good i like it i like it a lot nice to see so many people joining me now and i know that

you are probably very busy during lockdown i think so today we are talking about friends

it is good to have friends sometimes friends come into your life and then they leave your

life again sometimes friends will stay with you for many years or even forever sometimes

a friend will only be in your life for a short time but even though they go even though they

have vanished from your life they still stay in your mind and also in your heart you see

so it can happen friends the friends you've had the friends you've said goodbye to the

friends that you've kept the friends that you will always be friends with it's a super

subject i must admit a palindrome it is something that is the same even if you reverse it even

if you turn it the other way around so today we are talking about friends and i suppose

one good question i could ask who are your friends and if i really want to be nosy i

could also ask who have you been friends with the longest so who are your friends what are

their names let's share some information today nothing too personal but i think it's nice

to have a friend in your life so who are your friends who have you been friends with for

the longest in your life i do like the fact that some people always keep in touch with

friends from school so i always find that's amazing if you are i don't know middle aged

it is possible to keep or stay in touch with your school friends and i think that's lovely

i really do i think that's very nice

donna says my best friend's name is serene we are friends and we have been friends for

since

we were 23 and now we are 26. so your friend serene has been your friend for three years

very nice well all i can say is i hope your friendship will last forever kate again my

best friend's name is philippe but he moved to thailand last year and there is a seven

hour time difference between us now we've been friends for over 10 years isn't that

lovely so kate again your friend philip moved away he he emigrated did he go to live in

thailand or perhaps he went to work in thailand

my longest friend the person that i've known the longest is daniel says beatriz

and i've known daniel from primary school so i always find this quite amazing that there

are people who stay in touch with their school friends throughout their life amazing i remember

when i was in china quite a few of my friends would meet up with their classmates but they

weren't young people they were in their 30s or 40s they were middle-aged but they were

still in touch with their their colleagues and their classmates from school which i think

is lovely it's great i will be honest with you i don't know anyone now from my school

days i i'm not in touch with anyone from my school days although it was a very long time

ago you see

my best friend is tamara thank you sora sora hamasha we have been friends for 14 years

that is a very strong friendship so i always think if you are friends with someone for

many years if you are friends with someone for a very long time then we often say that

your friendship is strong you have a strong friendship you have a strong bond i like it

khan new win says i have been watching the tennis in melbourne on the television the

australian open 2021 it is day five now i believe if i'm not mistaken i think the women's

final has taken place is that right i think so

giovanni says a real friend is the person who is truly interested in you and of course

the other way around as well vice versa the other way around as well friendship is something

that seems easy to find but i will tell you now it is not it is not easy to find a good

friend it certainly isn't easy to find someone you trust in your life i think so it can be

quite difficult to find a person that you feel comfortable with so who are your friends

you can tell me who they are their name and who have you been friends with the longest

well i suppose in my life i would have to say mr steve mr steve is my my longest friend

in my life i've known mr steve for over 30 years 30 years since the 1980s so when i first

met mr steve it was the 1980s

can you believe it it was jehud elisa says my best friend is faiza and or faiza and we

have been friends for 25 years wow that is a very long friendship i think so yes i have

known mr steve for a very long time in fact this year it will be 32 years so 2021 will

be the 32nd year that i've known mr steve 32 years

i can't believe it shall i do that again

steve is a very nice person

this is true so let's let's look at some words shall we let's look at some words connected

to having friends before my voice completely disappears ah here's an interesting word we

can have the word pal pal so a friend can be described as your pal pal we often use

this in british english a pal i i'm going out tonight with a pal you are going to meet

your pals at the local pub unfortunately the local pub isn't open

pal it means a person who is your friend it is a nice informal way of describing a friend

you can say buddy buddy yes i'm going out tonight with some buddies i'm going to see

my best buddy tonight your buddy quite often we will use the word buddy in american english

quite often american english you will see your buddy your pal so there are many ways

of expressing friendship you could have a soulmate your soulmate a person who you feel

very close to may be a friend that you trust a friend who will listen to you maybe if you

have a soul mate we can say that you have a very special connection a very special bond

your soulmate can be your lover your partner or your friend so quite often in our lives

we will meet someone that we feel very comfortable with a person we can share things with we

seem to have many things in common

that person is your soul mate i like that word very much

here's another word we can use to name your friend we can say companion i like this word

companion a person who is by your side whatever the situation whatever is happening in your

life that person will be your companion they are with you as a friend or maybe they are

someone who is with you during some sort of activity for example maybe you are going on

holiday and you will take someone with you they will be your companion they are with

you they will join you during that certain activity during that certain time

here we go just to show how cool and street wise i am oh mr duncan oh very trendy

maybe you can have your bro hi bro you're my best bro am i your bro are you my bro are

we bros your brother so brother can be used to describe your best friend your male friend

who you are close to i suppose also you can use sister i haven't put sister you see i

know someone is going to complain about that they're going to say here here mr duncan why

didn't you include sister what's wrong with you don't you like girls

so yes you can say bro or brother or maybe sister to to describe your friend we are very

close we are like brothers we are like sisters bro i like that i think that's good i think

that's a good one i like that one here's another one oh someone who is your friend can be your

mate they are close to you they are a person you spend lots of time with long periods of

time you spend time with your mate or of course you might go out with a group of friends in

which case you will say mates you will go out with your mates

yes alessandra you can have something in common with one friend and some other things in common

with another friend that is true yes so maybe you have a group of friends but maybe you

share similarities with some of them but not others yes you're right i think that's a good

point just in case you are talking with 50 percent of the population sister does exist

i know why did i leave it out am i a bad man are you going to punish me are you going to

come round and cancel me i hope not

what will i do all day please don't cancel me i will have nothing to do if i can't do

this if i can't do this what will i do i don't know i really don't know lucas lucas kubrick

says what's up dog oh okay then yes i suppose so yes your friend you might call them dog

what about your shadow well i suppose you could describe your friend as your shadow

especially if you are always together if you are always spending your time together you

might have a very close friend you might describe them as your shadow and of course the word

that i showed you here mate your mate so your mate is the person you are friends with and

there are many ways of describing people who like to make friends you might describe someone

as friendly a friendly person a lot of people say that mr steve is friendly so when steve

meets people for the first time quite often they will feel relaxed with mr steve steve

is a friendly person he always likes to talk to people

what about me

do you want me to be honest can i be honest with you i am not very good at making friends

it's true in social situations where i am with lots of people especially in a place

where maybe there are a lot of i don't know people who are familiar with each other so

if i am with a group of people who know each other very well but they don't know me i will

feel quite uncomfortable it's true you might not believe that but it's true yes quite often

i can feel very uncomfortable with groups of people especially if i don't know them

very well a person who is friendly might be described as approachable a person who can

be described as approachable is a person who is friendly you can talk to them very easily

they are approachable here's another one

amiable oh a person who is friendly a person who is easy to talk to is a person that you

can describe as amiable an amiable person is a person who is friendly approachable they

are very easy to talk to maybe a person has a very warm personality their personality

or their character is friendly and warm i think so

you are not alone mr duncan i am also not used to being with lots of people well i think

sometimes if i'm if i'm in a situation where i don't know people or i don't know the people

that i'm going to spend time with especially if it's a group of people who know each other

already you see so i will feel as if i am the odd one out don't like that feeling i

don't like being the person who who doesn't fit in so if i am with a group of people sometimes

mr steve well certainly in the past not at the moment but in the past mr steve would

take me out and meet some of his friends from his amateur dramatic group well they they

know each other so they are familiar with each other but i don't know them very well

and and those situations always make me very uncomfortable i feel awkward and uncomfortable

i know it's strange isn't it but it's true just because a person can be extrovert or

have a very bubbly or excited personality it doesn't mean that they always feel comfortable

meeting new people

i suppose i suppose the thing with me is i i like to have control over a situation so

that's why i enjoy doing this that's why why i love teaching because you are in the classroom

at the front of the class you are in charge you are controlling the situation i think

so so i don't think there is anything to be ashamed of if you are a shy person or maybe

you are shy in certain situations a person who is sociable ah yes there is another interesting

word sociable a person who is sociable is someone that can walk around and meet new

people and feel very comfortable doing it but that's not me you see sometimes i can

be very unsociable the opposite unsociable

but i don't mean it so so when i say that i'm not sociable i don't mean that i'm rude

i mean that i feel awkward in certain situations certain social situations sociable a sociable

person a lot of people say that mr steve is very sociable here's a person who likes to

mix and chat with other people

finally we have the word gregarious oh so if you if you meet me in a situation where

i feel relaxed i can be very gregarious very friendly very chatty but if i'm in a situation

where i don't feel comfortable then maybe i will be very quiet i will say very little

i will just watch and listen but i will say very little mr steve is very sociable he loves

meeting people he loves talking on the phone with his friends he loves talking to his work

colleagues mr steve is a real chatterbox he is so steve is very sociable me i am not as

sociable it's true

and that's it today i think we will leave it there we are coming up to one hour already

i can't believe how fast today's live stream has gone it's gone by really quickly but have

no fear do not worry because we have 28 days of february which means that i'm here tomorrow

so yes i will be here tomorrow as well i will see you tomorrow on the live stream i will

be back now i am aware that many people today are celebrating the lunar new year so that

is probably the reason why a lot of people are missing today they are not here because

instead they are celebrating the year of the ox

arriving mr steve has many interests so it would be

easy for him to talk to other people i think so i'm going to have a cup of tea now yes

you are right i'm going to rest my voice i think one of the problems that i'm facing

at the moment is is my voice is a little bit tired because i've been here every day so

12 days i've been doing my live streams every day and i will be with you until the end of

this month every day so yes i will be back with you tomorrow it is saturday tomorrow

but i will be here on the live stream i will see you tomorrow i hope you've enjoyed today's

live stream and the live chat i hope it has been interesting thank you to kate thank you

beatrice thank you fatih zito thank you also mr oops hello mr oops i'm so glad to see that

you've decided to join me again today don't worry i know i am about to go but don't worry

because tomorrow i will be back and also if you missed this live stream you can watch

it later on and yes later there will be captions as well so the subtitles will be added to

this live stream later on when youtube saves it thank you very much i hope you've enjoyed

today's live stream i am going now i will give you a few moments to say goodbye to each

other thank you very much thank you giovanni thank you alessandro valentin palmyra thank

you for being here thank you to everyone this is mr duncan in the birthplace of english

saying see you tomorrow 2pm uk time yes it is saturday tomorrow but i will be here and

of course for all those celebrating the lunar new year the first day of the year of the

ox can i say happy lunar new year to you and of course

ta ta for now

just to remind you that it will be valentine's day on sunday yes i hope you will join me

for that as well