Podcast for English Learners — Travel Stories: SNAKES, BANDITS, and More

But I would scream, I would scream! Actually think I did. Oh! Yeah. Oh, no one laughed

though. No I guess everybody was scared as well. Yes, so you know. Exactly, it's it's

a legitimate reason to scream, I would say.

Alright, so I'm joined in the global studio today by the most lekker teacher in South

Africa, the one and only Casse. Hey, Casse. Hey, Thiago. Hey guys, how's it going? (I'm

good.) Uh, we were talking earlier about how hot it is, and I think besides that, everything's

good. Yeah. Here in Brazil it's really hot too.

Yeah. We share the same season time, right? We do, we do. But (Yeah.) yeah, I, I guess,

you know, it's, it's one of those things where you take it as it comes. Like, what can you

do about it, really? So. Yeah. I like that - you take it as it comes.

That's cool. (Yeah) Nice. So, uh, today we're gonna be talking all about travel experiences.

Casse and I have here, um, some memorable travel stories to share with you guys today

and to get started with this topic, I have a funny little thing here to read to you guys.

It's fun. Yeah. So check it out. Vacation or staycation, you know, not taking time off

can be a huge complication. Whether you see a coral snake next to you or make a taxi driver

blush with embarrassment, travel stories are always fun to share. In today's episode, we'll

have some fun by sharing some memorable experiences we've had while traveling. Yeah. Just a little

bit of a quick introthere, right? Did you like what I did there, Casse?

I, I thought it was really clever. It sounded like a poem to me, or like a really, you know,

good play on words. I thought it was really good.

Yeah. Yeah. That's, that's cool. Yeah. Well, we do have some nice words here, right? So,

Casse, what is a staycation? Like, what's the difference between a vacation and a staycation?

So a vacation is, we would use this word when we are traveling. We're going away. We're

traveling usually abroad. You know, we tend to differentiate between a staycation and

a vacation as the vacation would be the one where you're going abroad, and the staycation

is the one where you are staying with, you know, local vacation in your country, in your

city. And even we often use it to say like, I'm not going away this holiday or this vacation

as a holiday, um, we are going to stay at home. So your staycation could just be you

at home relaxing, um, on your days off. Cool. Yeah. I like the way that the word is

formed, right? Staycation. Right? Like, you stay locally. That's interesting. (Yeah,)

You know, it's crazy. I, I think that English can be quite literal sometimes, you know,

as a non-native speaker of English, I, I know it is that sometimes I can know, as some of

the words can be quite literal. Yeah. If you think about, oh, yeah, it makes sense. Right.

Stay-cation. I stay locally. I don't go abroad. (Exactly.) Yeah. That's cool. And, when you

take time off, what do you do? What does that mean?

So if you take time off, you're taking a break from doing something, especially work, so

you can take time off from your studies as well, or you can take time off from doing

a particular activity. Like maybe I, I'm, I'm used to going to the gym like every day

of the week, and then I take time off from going to the gym, means I'm just taking a

break from doing that activity. Nice. And, hearing this little introduction,

we also said the word blush, right? Uh, when you make someone blush, what's that?

So when you make someone blush you, well, you make them shy or you make them feel a

little bit embarrassed. Um, so I also wanna add that what it means, what we, when we are

blushing is our cheeks tend to go red, or our faces in general go pink or red. Um, but

I have, I just wanna add for the ladies out there, I mean, we all love makeup, so blush

also refers to, you know, the actual makeup that we use to give ourselves that effect

because, you know, rosy cheeks (Right) are a sign that you are youthful and you are,

you, I don't know, it's just a good positive, healthy sign. Healthy people blush is what

the, the idea is there. But yeah, to blush is to get embarrassed or feel embarrassed

and have your cheeks and face go red. Rosy cheeks. That's nice. (Rosy cheeks.) Rosy.

(Yeah. Yeah.) Is it like from the, the color pink, right?

Exactly. Exactly. Very good. Rosy cheeks. Rosy cheeks. Excuse

me. Not chicks. Rosy cheeks. Okay. That's cool. (Yeah.) Uh, when we were prepping for

this episode, Casse, we were talking about, you know, how sometimes learners they struggle

to tell the difference between the words holiday, vacation, and trip. Right? They can be quite

confusing. Um, how would you explain the difference of these three words?

Yeah. So, um, with the holi(day), so we know that in American English, you know, if people

are referring to taking time off to go away or plan some kind of stay in a different location,

they usually say that they're going on vacation. Um, but in British English and here in South

Africa as well, we would also refer to that as a holiday. I'm going on holiday, so I'm

going away on holiday next week. And that just doesn't refer to one day as it would

in, you know, we spoke about that as well. Uh, holidays usually like Christmas time or,

um, this particular national day that people celebrate. But for us, it's actually the same

meaning as a vacation. Um, and then, you know, we also spoke about trip. So people will say,

oh, am I going on a vacation or am I going on a trip? I think in general, they have a

very similar meaning. It all means you're going on a journey from one place to another.

But a trip can also be, usually it's, it's a short, um, well, not always, but we can,

we usually use it in that way. Like I'm, I'm going on a trip to my grandmother's house,

or my son is going on a trip to, with his, with his school, uh, to the local museum.

So it's, it's a short period and you're usually going and then coming back, um, soon, but

yeah. Cool. You know, that word trip reminds me

of, uh, of a classic Beatles song called Day Tripper. Yeah. Day Tripper. And, (Yeah) the,

the, the song talks about a girl who is a day tripper. I, I don't know exactly what

that means. Maybe, uh, she takes short trips, right? Like across town. Yeah. So it's a great

song. (Could be, yeah.) Yeah. It's one of the first ones I learned on guitar, actually.

Oh, wow. Yeah. I, I would love to hear you play that. That would be awesome.

Yeah. Maybe I can grab the guitar, you know, in a future episode just to play that main

(Yeah.) riff. It's really cool. You know, it's really cool. So, today, um, we're gonna

be talking all about trips and traveling and memorable traveling experiences. Uh, well,

we are talking about trips and traveling. I have to admit, Casse, one of my, uh, not

regrets, but maybe one of the things that kind of, you know, bums me out sometimes is

the fact that I have never had the opportunity to go abroad. At least not yet. You know,

it's one of those things that I still have to tick off my bucket list, you know, but

I am confident, I am hopeful that some, you know, I will be able to realize this dream

of going abroad soon. Definitely. Like, I mean, if we think about

it like as, I, I cannot tell you how amazing it actually is that you say this, and I mean,

I tell you this all the time, but you, your English is impeccable and you've never left

Brazil. So I think this is is not something to feel bummed out about. Well, you know,

like if you look at it from that perspective, it's something to feel (Yeah.) proud of, right?

Thanks for that. I really appreciate that, by the way. Uh, what does it mean to be bummed

out about something? Just to feel sad and, you know, you're feeling

a little bit depressed about it. I wouldn't even say a little bit. Sometimes if you're

really bummed out, you could be very depressed about, you know, that the state of, of the

situation, but. Yeah, that's true. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I,

I view that as an accomplishment that I have in my life, for sure. Yeah. Being able to

learn English as well as I did here in my home country. For me, uh, I think, uh, a big

deal, a big, uh, part of that was talking to people as much as possible. Yeah. So sometimes

I would meet some native speakers on the street in my hometown. Sometimes I had some friends

also who spoke English, so, you know, we practice together. But the, the crazy thing is that

nowadays you don't even have to know people necessarily that speak English to practice

or speak, like, you know, personally. Right? Uh, let's say the app, for example, yeah,

the RealLife English app. You can just pop up there and connect with someone, have a

short 4 minute conversation. And, you know, it's one of those things that wow. I mean,

we have so many resources nowadays. Right. By the way, uh, for the listeners here, if

you haven't tried the app yet, give it a try. I mean, you know, I wish I had that, you know,

when I was learning English, uh, many, many years ago. So it's free. Just, click the link

of the description or RealLife English on your favorite app store, search for it and,

uh, give it a try. Yeah. Exactly. Plus, I like that you mentioned like

a quick, you know, quick 4 minute call. You don't, you won't even have time to blush in

4 minutes. You'll just speak to the stranger. No embarrassment. Just, you know, quick short

call. And you'll already have that, you know, experience and the fun side of meeting someone

new. So No need to blush (What do you have to lose?)

with the embarrassment. That's cool. That's nice. So Casse, I wanted to share with you,

uh, my memorable travel experience. One of them. Yeah. It was a trip that I took locally

here in Brazil. And I think it's a, it's a good example of when expectations don't meet

reality. You know. It was the first time I visited Florianopolis, right, here in Brazil,

it's in the south. And, um, you know, we, Brazilians, we tend to call it Floripa. Yeah,

you've been there too. Yeah. At our last summit. So, you know, the, the, the place, the island,

it's a beautiful place. Yeah, it's beautiful.

It's an amazing place, beautiful beaches. But the first time I went there actually wasn't

so good. And let me explain why. Right? That was, I think, 2018. And, uh, what happened

was I got really disappointed with the hotel where I stayed at, you know, because when

I was booking the hotel, uh, you know, before going there, the pictures looked amazing,

you know, they looked incredible. Like, oh, this is such a nice place to stay in. But

when we got there, and you know, it was me and my family, right? I took my wife and my

son who was I think seven years old at the time. My daughter wasn't born yet. It was

our first time ever, uh, in Floripa, right? And we got really disappointed with the hotel

because, you know, it's one of those hotels that, um, I don't know, it seems like time

hasn't been kind to the place, you know? So, it wasn't at all, like the pictures showed

on the website, and it was a big place. It was a huge space, yeah, even external area.

But, uh, there were many deactivated facilities that hadn't been used for a long time. So,

you know, it's one of those places where you look around, you go like, okay, I imagine

that this place used to be a really good place like 30-40 years ago. But I don't know, maybe

business wasn't going well over the years, or, um, I don't know what happened, but, you

know, it seems like the the place, the hotel has declined over, over time. Yeah. So, you

know, that was a little bit of a, a disappointment for us, and, um, even the breakfast, you,

I was expecting that nice, (Wow.) what, what do you call it? A nice, um, continental (Continental)

breakfast, right, that hotels offer. It was like, you know, even the breakfast was like,

okay, yeah. Letdown, Ugh.

It was a letdown. And, to make matters even let's say worse, I think on our last day there,

there was even a, a mini coral snake, you know, uh, by the entrance. And it was insane.

You know, I don't know if it is, if it was poisonous or not, you know, but what I remember

is I've seen some guys from the hotel who worked there, you know, trying to capture

it with a kind of a, a plastic bottle maybe to call animal services. So I was like, oh,

man. I mean, we even have coral snakes here. I mean, that's not shaping to be a good stay

here, you know? But yeah. But overall, we enjoyed the, the trip, right? Like visiting

the beaches and, you know, uh, visiting some of the island, right? But I think that the

hotel was a big bummer for us. Yeah. Yeah. You mentioned an interesting, uh, word

combination. You said: deactivated facilities. What does that mean?

Yeah. A facility is a place, right, where maybe an activity takes place. Yeah. So at

that hotel, there were some stages for performances, you know, I imagine that people used to hold

concerts there, for example. Yeah. But you know, you could see that it was deactivated,

like, you know, it wasn't in use that place, that facility. Yeah. So, um, yeah, a facility

is a space where a certain activity is done there.

Yeah. There's another word you used. You, you said like, um, it was declining. Like,

like, so when something is in decline or when it's declining, what does that mean?

I think it's the opposite of progress, right? So when you progress, you go upwards, right?

You are improving, improving, improving, getting better. If you are declining, it's the opposite.

Yeah. You are downgrading. Yeah. You are lowering, yeah, your progress or your, the quality of

the service you provide. Yeah. So that's it. So it was an interesting experience. Um, aside

from that, like I said, I mean, we had a good time. We took many pictures and, you know,

I, I got to go back to Floripa other times, you know, after that and, you know, all the

experiences were like amazing. Yeah. So I am, I'm, so, I just, I I have questions

about the coral snake. I'm sorry. I hate snakes. Me too. Yeah.

Snakes are weird. No arms, no legs, just a slithering muscle. Ugh. I'm just (Yeah) not,

I'm sorry. It's disgusting. (It is) I love animals, but I just, snakes need to stay away

from me. But I have a question. (Uhhuh) How, firstly, how did you react? What was your

reaction to the snake? I reacted in a very brave way by staying away

from it. Like, you know, really away from it. Like, you know, guys, you know, there's

a snake here. Then, you know, two guys who worked at the hotel, they went there and,

you know, dealt with it, (Yeah.) and then called somebody responsible. Yeah. But yeah,

no, I kept my distance. Come on. Yeah. I was on vacation. Yeah.

This snake is not gonna ruin our vacation. I paid for this!

No, no, no. Come on. Yeah. But, you also had, uh, an interesting story to share, right,

Casse, um, kinda related to bandit, I believe, right? (Yes) What's a bandit, by the way?

So a bandit is like a criminal or, uh, a law breaker. You can, you might hear it like in

old Wist movies, like, you know, the bandits are those bad guys who are, you know, robbing

the bank or who are trying to break the law in some way. But it's, it's, my story is not

about someone breaking the law. It's like someone causing trouble. And this is another

way that you can describe, uh, another way you can, word you can use to describe someone

who likes causing trouble and just mischief and just not following rules. This bandit

who. So anyway, in this, in my story, it's quite similar to yours in terms of it being

relating to animals. All right. So since I was a kid, my family loved, they're really

big on like camping and outdoor stays. So we tend to camp in the mountains or at the

beach, and it's sort of a family tradition for us to go camping at a part(icular), at

least once a year, we go camping at this one spot. It's called Kogel Bay. Kogel Bay - Kogel

is a Africans word, and it means like a ball, like a metal ball, like a, you know, the ones

you throw in shot-put or, anyway, so, Kogel Bay is a beautiful place. It's stunning. It's

like you have the beach on the one side and you have this beautiful mountainous area on

the other side, and it's really picturesque. It's stunning. And, you know, it's the kind

of place that, like, if I describe it to you, you're thinking, oh, I'm gonna have the most

peaceful, tranquil, serene, like getaway . If I go there, I'm just gonna be able to relax

and forget about the troubles in the city. And that was the mindset that we had at the

time. I remember being quite young and going like, yay, we're getting away from like the

hustle and bustle in the city. We're, we're gonna spend some time in nature. And it's

so wonderful. And it really is a wonderful place. But I think what we were not expecting

was that nature would come with its own, you know, attack. Like we didn't, it was gonna

come with its own drama. So I know I described it before as like, we were getting away from

the drama in the city, but we didn't realize that there was gonna be drama in nature. And

what we found was that even though we had this beautiful scenery, this stunning relaxing

space around us, because this is not a resort, it's not a a manmade place. It's literally

us camping on the beach with a mountain in the background. And what happens in this space

is that there are a lot of baboons, um, who live in the mountains. There are a lot of,

um, I wanna call them like families. I think they're called families of baboons, but they

live all over the mountains, and they basically come down to the campsites to feed. So the,

the food that humans leave on the, on the, in the trash cans or, um, the food that, you

know, after you have a barbecue, you, you know, throw your leftover, I don't know, people

throw their, their food in the trash cans. And basically what these baboons do is they,

they scratch in the trash cans and they eat that food. But they've, they get, they've

gotten so used to humans invading, I don't wanna say invading, but entering their space,

that they actually kind of like, they literally cross the line of like, going while you're

asleep at night, they'll come into your campsite and they'll scratch in your bags. They'll

open your tent, they'll enter (Wow.) your tent, steal your food, and then run away.

And that was something we experienced. So we were camping and, you know, just having

this, you know, we thought we were just having the best time. And when we woke up the next

morning, there was a baboon, literally in the tent stealing toilet paper, chips, like

anything he could find inside of the bag. And luckily (Wow) this was not a very big

one, so he just ran away. And they're not afraid of humans. They really aren't. And

for those of you who don't know, baboons are quite ferocious when they want to be. They

have long, sharp teeth, they have claws, they have even, I mean, I, I've never seen this

happen, but I've heard that they even snatched kids and babies. So maybe this was just something

we were told so that we stay away from (Wow) them. I, I have no idea. But, um, you know,

on a, on a lighter note, they, they, they tend to be quite harmless. They just really

will steal your foodand scare the living daylight out of you, uh, if you wake up next. So finding

one, like right there in your tent. So yeah, that was my memorable travel experience.

Wow. It is memorable. It might be worth explaining to the listeners what a baboon is, right,

Casse. It's a primate, right? It's a, a kind of monkey, right?

Exactly. I think, by the way, I have video and like some photos of this particular campsite

with baboons in it. Um, maybe I could share with Thiago and he could.

Oh, that's cool. Yeah. That's great. At first glance, it looks like a case of man

versus wild, all along the Cape Peninsula where National Park meets residential areas,

baboons are a contentious issue. They're so habituated, they're raiding houses almost

every day at certain times of the year. While fascinating to watch in the wild and troublesome

on the road, having a troupe go through your kitchen is another matter, and alpha males

can be terrifying. Oh, these baboons!

Look at that. Yeah. I mean, I, I think it, it looks scary, you know, like, I imagine

if I am the owner of the house and, uh, you know, a group of baboons, just, you know,

walk in, I don't, I, I don't know what I would do, you know, probably just like, you know,

with the coral snake thing, I would just, you know, keep my distance, call some, shout

at somebody from distance, you know, like, please help.

It's the smart thing to do, like let someone else handle it. (Right) Um, yeah. But I think,

like, as I was saying, um, like, I don't think that they, their intention is to harm humans.

I think one of the problems is that, you know, when we were camping, we were entering a natural

space. So we were, humans have sort of infiltrated or entered into this space that belongs technically

in the natural sense to the animals, into, you know, into the baboons in this case. But

in the case of like those residents, like now, the, the animals are so comfortable with

humans that they think that the humans are in, like, they think that they can enter the

human spaces as well. So I feel like it's just a weird situation right now in both those

places in the campsite and in the, the video that we just saw. Um, so yeah. But what do

you think, what do you think about like, you know, in your case with the coral snake, like

that was a hotel. I don't think there should be snakes in the hotels, right?

Yeah. I mean, you know, I guess maybe it was a part of the problem with the hotel, right?

I mean, that was part of the problem also. Yeah. Like, you know, it was really a place

in decline to the point that, you know, even, we saw these kinds of animals there. Yeah.

But, uh, from this video here, I thought it was very interesting, some words that, that

we saw. Before we get into them, you used a very nice word when we, when you were sharing

your story, which was, um, picturesque, right? You were describing the, the campsite. It's

a beautiful place. It's picturesque. What is picturesque?

So when something or someone looks pictures, they look beautiful, they're so beautiful

that they look almost like, I don't know, they're per, it's the right. Like, they could,

you could take a photo, like a pictures sunset is like something you want to capture and,

and keep forever. You wanna capture that moment or that look, it's so beautiful. It's so stunning.

Think of it like that. Like when something is picturesque, it's so beautiful that you

wanna capture it. It's a nice word. It kind of reminds me of

exquisite. I don't know why, but it reminds me of exquisite.

Yeah. Yeah. It, it basically means the same thing.

Yeah. Like something really beautiful. Yeah? Very, very, (Nice.) like unbelievably, yeah,

attractive, visually attractive. Cool. Now, from the video we just saw here,

yeah, the clip, um, I heard some nice words there. For example, I think they were saying

how baboons are contentious. Yeah. Uh, if something is contentious, what does that mean?

Yeah. So if something is contentious, I think basically in the case of this video, right,

it causes a very heated argument. It causes, it's controversial, it causes, so, um, just

to give you guys a little insight into what the rest of the video is and why it's described

as contentious is that, as I mentioned now, like humans are literally living in these

spaces where the animals have been living for a long time. So you could think of it

as like, whose fault is it that the animals are entering these homes? Is it the fact that

the, you know, animal, the baboon population has grown? Or is it that the, uh, and they

should be, the animals should be removed, or the humans should leave the space? So that's

the argument in this context. Okay, nice. It's a great word. It sounds very

advanced. Um, (Yeah.) what about raiding? Uh, they say that baboons raid houses. What

does it mean to raid? If you raid, or if something, or someone raids

a place, they attack that place suddenly. And you can think of a police raid. I know

last week we spoke about the, the police bust, um, and in this case, a raid would be quite

similar. You're, you're attacking, uh, a particular place, um, to, you know, maybe you want, you're,

you're raiding a place in order to find something. In this case, the baboons are raiding it to

find food. Um, yeah. Right. You know, uh, I have a, a I don't know,

a unique brain, I think, because, you know, I, I remember dates of movies or names of

movies and series and songs, right? Listening to this word now raid reminds me of the first

Indiana Jones movie, because, you know, I believe it's called Indiana Jones and the

Raiders of the Lost Ark, right? The Raiders people who raid, right? The Raiders of the

Lost Ark. And, uh, I also heard troublesome, Casse, yeah. Uh, they were calling the, the

baboons, baboons troublesome. What's that? Yeah, in this case trouble, when something

is troublesome, it means that it causes difficulty or annoyance, or it just causes problems for

the residents. The baboons are causing problems for the residents. So you can think trouble,

hmm, trouble is a bad thing. Mm. Okay. Troublesome. Um, in this case, we are, we are referring

to someone causing trouble or being, their behavior is, is annoying. Yeah.

Right. That's cool. Um, well, I mean, the word, yeah, the definition and not (not the

action) not a troublesome person, that's not cool yet. But, you know, um, I guess, I guess

we could talk a little bit about the takeaways, yeah, from each one of our stories. Because,

you know, for me personally, uh, in my case, I think my takeaway with my story in Floripa

and the coral snake and the bad hotel, my takeaway was appearances can be deceiving.

You know, just like I think, uh, agent Smith says to Neo in the Matrix movies, Mr. Anderson,

appearances can be deceiving. Right? Something like that. Uh, because that's exactly what

happened, right? I mean, I had one idea or impression of the hotel through the pictures

on the website, but actually seeing it, it wasn't anything like that. That was my takeaway.

You know, appearances can be tricky, can be deceiving. Uh, about your story, you know,

on the campsite, the baboons, you know, invading your tent and everything. Uh, any takeaways

from that story? Anything you learned maybe? Yeah. I mean, I think one thing that I think

is important, I mean, I think in both of our cases, well, before I, I answer that question,

what does it mean when something is deceiving? It's, uh, it tricks you, it manipulates you,

or it makes you believe in something that is not real or not true. So if you, if you

believe in something that is not real, or it's not that, you can say that, that thing

deceived you. You were deceived. You were tricked. Yeah.

Yeah. So in this case, like the images that you saw when you initially booked your vacation

or, or planned your vacation, it was not reality, as you said. Mm-hmm.

Exactly. The pictures deceived me (Yeah) ,you know?

Yeah. I, I think, you know, with both of our stories, I think the takeaway for me is that

either researching through, like going online and really deep when you're planning a vacation

or a stay. In our case, we were both in our, you know, local countries, but we were in

a different part of, it's not part of our daily lives. It was different part of the

city or a different, you know, city altogether, different state. So yeah. So we were in basically

a different, we were planning to go to different environments, unfamiliar environments. I think

that whenever you're doing this, you should definitely research thoroughly. Like understand

what it's like there, understand what problems you could face by, you know, reading some

reviews online or even better than reviews. And, um, you know, something that someone

else writes online would be to actually speak to local people, maybe make a friend, or if

you're online, I don't know if you have the opportunity to, it definitely helps to speak

to someone who has an understanding or who's been to that place before and who's had a

firsthand experience with that place, and ask them questions about it. You know, what

can I expect when I go there? Or tell me more about this place. Um, yeah, I think this,

this is what I, I, I realized, I think if I had, you know, done that before, if my family

had done that before, we would've been mentally prepared for the baboons. And instead of it

being like, oh, this is a bad experience, we could have been like, oh yeah, we expected

this, we prepared for this. Um, and in our case it was a, a coral snake and baboons.

But, you know, imagine you were planning to go to a country, you don't know what the what

people dress like, what the dress code is like in this country. What's, what's a common

way for people to dress? You know, are they more conservative? Are they, you know, free?

You might be surprised, and this could make you feel shocked and, you know, have a negative

experience. But one way, or even the food, you go to a place and people are eating a

type of meat or something that you think is like totally wacky. Like, woah, this is crazy.

I, I kind of imagine that. Um, but I guess my point here is that, you know, when you're

researching and you are, or you in even better, as I said, speaking with someone who has lived

that experience, you get to prepare yourself. Not only are you informing yourself, but you're

really, um, opening yourself up to like, you know, possibilities and understanding cultures

and traditions or customs better in that place. Yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent.

Uh, the importance of getting to know people from other places in the world, even. Right?

Uh, the same case with me. I mean, if I had known a local from Floripa back then, probably

the person could have warned me like, Hey, you know, don't stay at that place. It's not

a good place. You can stay at that place. Right? So yeah, definitely getting to know

as many people as possible from different regions, right? That is really useful. And,

well, speaking of which, right, it just so happens, you can do that nowadays with our

app, right, with the RealLife English app. Uh, we've also released recently the Premium

version of the RealLife app, where you can, you know, access the episodes with transcripts,

interactive transcripts, and you have unlimited speaking time. Uh, so it's been a game-changer

for many of our users. And we actually have a testimonial here from a Premium user. So

would you like to read that one? Sure. So, Supriya from India says, the RealLife

Premium is one of the best and easiest ways to learn English. I love the new way of learning

vocabulary through flashcards. The transcripts help make the podcast listening effortless.

And last but not least, improving your speaking skills is just a click away. This app is a

mind blowing and revolutionary way to learn English. Aww yeah.

Nice. Thank you very much, Supriya, for the awesome testimonial. And for those of you

listening to us here on the app, and you are using the free version, uh, give the Premium

a try. I'm sure you're gonna like it. And, you're gonna unlock a lot of cool features

by going Premium. Okay. So now, Casse, it's time for the RealLife Way moment. Yeah. So,

you know, today we've been talking about travel experiences. We shared a little bit about,

you know, some experiences that happened to us. Uh, which component of the RealLife Way

would you connect that conversation we had today to?

I would say that it's definitely part of living your English. Like don't just learn it, live

it. So what we did today was we were discussing real events that we experienced, and we were

able to use our English to do that, to have a really fun, um, engaging conversation and

to share our experiences. Right? Yeah. Yeah. That's so true. Yeah. Um, I think

about it as, you know, we, we are, we are talking about real-life situations also. Yeah.

Because, you know, it's things that really happened to us. Yeah. And even the, the short

clip we watched about the baboons in Cape Town, that's something real that is happening

nowadays. Yeah. I think that's a very recent video. So we are, we are practicing English

here as it is used in the real world, right, by actually, you know, accessing, uh, real

news or real, uh, content in the media and just, you know, we're doing those things or

talking about those things in English. Right? Um, I, I think this conversation that we are

having today, we can also connect that a little bit with the second component, which is connecting

your English to your identity in the sense that we are sharing personal stories here

today. So your personal stories are usually part of who you are. Yeah. They shape your

life, your experiences, so using your English to talk about things that are relevant to

you, yeah, this is a another point here that I think we could connect the RealLife way

to. And of course, we all know that when we're

talking about ourselves or our experiences, it's always easier, isn't it? So yeah, when

we're talking about ourselves or our experiences, we don't have to strain our brains that much,

or it's not that hard to, to think about what we want to say. However, we might not always

have the best vocabulary. And I guess that's an opportunity to to learn some new vocabulary

or to, you know, level up, uh, in terms of our, how we describe, you know, these things

that we do in our, in our lives and in these experiences that we've had. So, yeah, I, I

think when it comes to living your, your English in this way and sharing stories with others,

um, you could, I mean, we spoke, I just wanna say this, like we spoke about, um, these stories,

like earlier this week we, we, we, you know, we, we discussed some of, um, our ideas for,

you know, what we would talk about. But every time you tell the story, you'll remember another

little detail or you can add a little more. So it's, you know, when we're using our English

to connect with other people and share these experiences, it's, it's, it's such a great

way to practice and think of different ways to say things.

So I guess we can connect that with the challenge that we have for our listeners today, right,

Casse? And the challenge is, find a wild animal in your country, or where you live and share

with us your encounter with (Yeah.) this animal. No, I'm just kidding. You don't haveto do

that. Take a picture. Yeah. With a thumbs up like that. No, no, we are just kidding

guys. Uh, but, um, I guess the challenge here could be, um, try to use as many adjectives

as possible when describing a memorable travel experience you've had. Just to give us some

examples here. Yeah. When talking about your trips or your traveling, uh, you can use words

such as riveting, for example. Yeah. Something riveting is something really interesting,

really good. So if you had a positive experience in your trip, you can say, oh, it was a riveting

experience. Or even exciting. It was an exciting trip that we had. Uh, what other examples

of adjectives can we use in this context, Casse?

Yeah. So for example, if you had a bad experience, like, I mean, I wouldn't say that our experiences

were bad, but they could be considered less than positive.

Less optimal? Less. Exactly. So you could use adjectives

like mortifying or dreadful. I had a dreadful time, uh, because the baboon stole all of

my food, and I, I had to go and buy, you know, more food, and, like, it cost me a lot of

money. Um, and if something is, is mortifying, it's actually bad in like an embarrassing

way. Like, it's so embarrassing that you have a bad experience or it, it actually makes

you feel, um, you know. So for example, like if, uh, if you saw the snake, the coral snake,

and you went, Ah, you know, that would be embarrassing. And everyone laughs at you,

and... I'm kidding. You can scream if you see a snake. But I would scream.

You know, I, I think, I think I did. I actually think I (Oh,) did. Yeah.

No one laughed though. No, I guess everybody was scared as well,

yes. So, you know. Exactly. It's, it's a legitimate reason to

scream, right, I would say, but I mean, if, if you were one of those like guys who feels

like, oh no, I am not afraid of snakes, I'm not gonna scream this is, I can handle the

snake, then, I mean, maybe you would be mortified, um, in that situation. Yeah. So if, if that's

your experience, you can use adjectives like those.

All right guys. So try to use these adjectives in as many as you can when describing, um,

a travel experience that you've had. Maybe you can share your travel experience here

in the comments section on YouTube if you're watching us on YouTube. Or you can just send

your story to [email protected]. We are curious to, you know, to, to read,

yeah, your crazy, memorable story. And with that said, thank you so much for listening

to us or watching us here on YouTube today. And stay tuned for next week's episode. 1,

2, 3. (Aww) Aww (yeah.) yeah! That was a long one.