Learn English with a Short Story: Roller Coaster Day! (British English Podcast)

Hello, and welcome to The English Like a Native Podcast, the listening

resource for intermediate to advanced level English learners.

My name is Anna and today we are learning English through a short story.

We all enjoy a good story.

As children, we often beg our parents to read another book and at bedtime, we

can't possibly close our eyes and settle down until we've had a bedtime story.

My children often want three, four, five, six stories at bedtime.

So, we settle for one story each and then I sometimes will tell them an extra

story once they're tucked up in bed.

But stories don't just stop with children and childhood.

We enjoy stories throughout our lives in many different forms.

We enjoy reading books and we enjoy getting little glimpses of people's

personal stories in magazines, on YouTube, on social media.

We also enjoy stories in the form of film, or on the radio, or in podcast form.

We like stories because it takes us on a journey.

Sometimes, we learn something new.

Sometimes, it verifies a thing we already know.

Sometimes, it challenges us to consider another point of view or to change

our own minds and points of view.

And often they are heartwarming; they are thought-provoking; they are frightening.

They provide us with some form of outlet or escape from our own lives.

And so, stories can be beneficial in so many ways.

We used stories back in the early times, back when we were, you know, making

fire and wearing loincloths, we were telling stories to one another as a way

to teach, as a way to pass down lessons and story is just as powerful today as

it was back then, just as important.

So, when it comes to learning, especially learning English, it's much more powerful

to learn structures, vocabulary, within a story than it is out of context.

So, if you're trying to onboard lots of professional English vocabulary so that

you can use it in the workplace, it's much better to learn that vocabulary in context

in the setting of a story than it is to try and just look at the list and onboard

that to remember that list of words.

So, with that said, today I'm going to be sharing with you a short story, and

this is called "Roller Coaster Day".

And I hope you'll enjoy it.

So, without further ado, let me introduce you to this little story.

What a day it has been!

You know the ones when everything feels like a roller coaster ride?

Well, today has been just that, full of ups and downs and surprises.

The first couple of hours at work were a piece of cake.

I work for a publishing company, and I have to deal with a lot of

requests, deadlines and demands.

I managed to finish everything ahead of schedule, and it felt great to

breeze through my to-do list without too many interruptions or distractions.

This doesn't happen very often, believe me!

Later in the morning though, I received an email that completely changed my day.

It was from my boss, notifying me that I had been selected to attend a prestigious

industry conference next month.

This was a golden opportunity to network with professionals, to gain

valuable insights, and showcase our publishing company on a larger stage.

She said she had passed on my contact details to the organisers and that I

should expect to hear from them soon.

Lucky me, eh?

However, I soon got a follow-up email from the conference organisers stating that

I had only been selected as a reserve; there had been some miscommunication,

and I would only attend in the case that a colleague of mine was unable to.

To add to my frustration, I then found out that a key project I had been working

on diligently for weeks had hit a major snag; one of our partners had gone back

on a promise to support us financially, putting the entire project at risk.

At lunchtime, I seriously considered giving up on the

day and going home to work.

I had the flexibility to be able to do this, but I decided

I would stick things out.

Maybe after a good lunch at the pub around the corner I'd have a change of luck.

I usually order the same thing, steak and kidney pie, but one of the specials

of the day was chicken tikka masala.

Well, I thought to myself,

"If I have a hot curry then I'll have the perfect excuse to order a pint of beer."

I don't normally have a drink until the evening, but I needed to put the events

of this morning well and truly behind me!

The curry was great, the beer too!

I started wondering whether I could get away with ordering

another, when my mobile pinged.

It was my boss again.

She'd realised that she'd jumped the gun when she told me that I'd be going to the

conference, and she wanted to apologise.

I'd come in here to forget all about that, and now I was

thinking about it all over again.

She was still trying though, and I tried to predict what she would say.

Maybe she would give me a high-profile author to work with, or perhaps she'd

find out that I was at the pub and want to join me to discuss the new project.

It was a long message, and as she kept on typing I got fed up of just looking at the

screen, and I got up to settle my bill.

I didn't carry a lot of cash with me as I pay for everything with my mobile these

days, but I wanted to leave a tip as the chicken tikka had been a hit with me.

I took out my wallet and scrambled around for a couple of

quid to stick in the tips jar.

My mobile pinged again and, assuming it was my boss, I wanted to see what

she had been taking so long to type.

I started juggling the coins and the mobile, and trying to do too

much at the same time, I ended up knocking the jar off the counter.

"Oh!"

As I tried to catch it, I lost control of my mobile, dropped it and everything

ended up crashing to the floor.

Obviously, I attracted the attention of everyone in the pub.

The staff came running over and tidied up the mess, separating the

coins from the pieces of broken jar.

They jokingly asked me if I was trying to take the tip's money

in order to pay for my meal!

I apologised and produced a ten-pound note to cover the

tip and the price of a new jar.

"I'll stick to the steak and kidney pie next time,"

I said, and I went back to work.

In the commotion, I'd forgotten about the message, and I was just getting back to

my office when my phone started ringing.

I answered and heard my boss's excited voice,

"Well what do you think?!"

The message!

I hadn't read it, of course, so I had to ask her what was in it before

I could tell her what I thought.

She told me that she'd just heard back from the organisers of the

conference and that there would be a place for me there after all.

I think she had pulled a few strings so that I could go, but I didn't ask any

questions; I was just as pleased as punch!

The rest of the afternoon was unremarkable.

But, on my way home, my car started playing up.

I had to take it to the garage where the mechanic hit me with the bad news.

It would cost me an arm and a leg to fix the issues.

They gave me a courtesy car to use while they worked on my own.

An automatic!

Oh, it was going to be hard for me to get used to the non-manual system.

On the way home I pulled over as I got a video call from my friend Morgan.

He was grinning like a Cheshire cat, and I knew something exciting was coming.

"Come on, Morgan!

Spill the beans!"

I insisted.

They'd got the job they'd been after.

I was genuinely chuffed for them, and their good news cheered me

up while I tried to remember how to operate the courtesy car.

When I got home, I thought to myself that life has a funny

way of evening things out.

One minute you're up, the next you're down, then you come back up again.

That's the roller coaster of life, like I said.

And it wasn't over yet!

The evening took an unexpected turn when I received a message

from my favourite author.

Out of the blue, they were readying a surprise book launch on Sunday!

Would you believe though?

Right after getting this message through, my daughter Taylor called me and

dropped the bombshell; she had finally decided to leave the student flat which

she had been sharing with a group of, well, good-for-nothings, I called them.

Anyway, she told them and they want her out ASAP!

I would have to get her out of there this weekend.

Sod's law strikes again!

Life keeps you on your toes, alright!

I retired to the living room with a beer while I waited for

dinner to cook in the oven.

I needed something to settle me down.

No sooner had I plonked myself in the armchair than I heard a kerfuffle outside.

I got up and looked out of the window.

There seemed to be a bit of an issue with someone blocking

another resident's driveway.

More concerning to me though, was that there was an unfamiliar

car in my parking space.

"What now?!"

I cried, and I was half-way out of the front door before I remembered

that my own car was at the garage.

The strange car was my temporary wheels.

After dinner, I decided to have an early night and hoped that the day

had finished with its surprises.

I hit the hay at 9 and slept like a baby until my alarm went off the next morning.

And that rounds up today's episode.

Did you hear any interesting words or phrases that were unfamiliar to you?

Well, if you would like to know more about some of those interesting words

or phrases, then you can get a full vocabulary list for this podcast by

clicking on the link in the description.

Now, normally vocabulary lists, and transcripts are available to Plus Members.

We send out an email every Monday for Plus Members to get their bonus content, as

well as transcripts and word lists, but today I'm making the word list available

to everyone, so that you can all benefit.

But in future perhaps you'll consider supporting the podcast

by becoming a Plus Member.

To get your hands on that vocabulary list, just click on the link in the description.

Until next time, take very good care and goodbye.