[0:01]All right. Hello, high-level listeners. Welcome to Episode 4 of our High Level Listening English Podcast with me, Kat. And me, Mark. My name's Mark Teacher, uh, from the UK. I've been teaching English as a second language for over ten years. My goal with this project and with all my students is to get them comfortable with grammar, uh, vocabulary, and so they can express exactly what they want to say clearly and accurately with their friends, family, and people from all over the world. Absolutely. And I'm Kat, or Kat Teacher. I'm originally from the United States, and I'm your American voice on high level listening. I've been teaching English for over ten years, and I absolutely love sharing my American culture with our students. Uh, my teaching style is kind of helping you sound more comfortable and friendly in your English, plus the ins and outs of American pronunciation. If you're looking to chat, just like you're hanging out with your American friends, then I'm here to help with that. Yes, so I've got ten years of experience, so is she, together with these two decades of teaching experience, we want to use high level listening to take your English to the next level. And we want to do that through these live classes and through our channel. The topic we'll be discussing today is your afternoon. This is episode four, so if you've been following, we started in the morning, we did our commute to work. Then we had lunch, and now we are here, after lunch. We've had something to eat, we've had a little break, we went back up to the office, and we are here. So, we're both going to share our experiences of an ordinary afternoon at work. I'll read a short script. So we'll chat, and then we'll discuss the differences in the vocabulary, grammar, any interesting phrases or high level English you need to know. So, uh, I think Kat will go first. What did you do this afternoon? So this afternoon was business as usual for me. I was at work by one, yeah, about 1pm after grabbing a quick lunch. I went through the day's emails and then jumped into a couple of meetings. After that, I worked on some reports and chatted with colleagues about upcoming projects, took a short break, had a coffee, and then wrapped up the day by setting up my tasks for tomorrow. All in all, a standard afternoon. What about you, Mark? What did you do this afternoon? This afternoon was much of the same, really. I got back into the office at about one after a decent lunch, checked my emails, then had a chat with some workmates about the tasks we still had left for the week. I looked over a couple of documents and then obviously, I had my usual tea break. Rounded off the afternoon by getting everything sorted out for the next day. Fairly standard day, to be honest. Absolutely. So, as you can see, both Mark and I actually had very similar days, but we used a little bit of different language. Our dialogues and our, uh, little paragraphs and descriptions, these are meant to be filled with good vocabulary, and also to give you a few different ways, kind of to say the same thing. Americans and Brits, all English speakers, we never just say the standard way. There's always a different way to talk about things. So we're kind of giving you lots of different options. What we're going to do now is we're going to go through most of the expressions, most of the, uh, vocabulary bits, the grammar parts, and we're going to dissect it a little bit. So, let's go ahead and start. I, we asked about the afternoon, so Mark, how was your afternoon? It was much of the same. The first line of my script, this afternoon was much of the same. Uh, these four words are part of an expression that you can't really change. I can't change any of these words. Much of the same. And that means it was pretty normal. It was the same as yesterday, the same as the day before, the same as last week. It was much of the same. So I did the same tasks, I did the same kind of routine. Um, if you're in a conversation, you can use this as your answer. If somebody says, how was your morning? It was much of the same. How was your afternoon? Yeah, it was much of the same. Well, how was your weekend? It was much of the same. Uh, how about you? How was your afternoon? This afternoon was business as usual for me. Okay? So, business as usual. Now, you think that business has to be at work. Now, I am at work during this time. You know, I got back from grabbing a quick lunch. Business as usual. This just means that nothing really changed. It was similar to my normal routine. A lot of people, your work doesn't really change day to day, so it was just business as usual. It was the same as it usually is, okay? Nothing really changed in my routine. I do the same things I normally do.
[5:42]I did the same things I normally do pretty much every day, okay? So it was business as usual. Oh, quick question. Uh, can you only use that phrase for work? Or can you use that phrase for other things? It does sound like business as usual sounds like you would, um, use it only at work. I could use it in other places, even at school. Yep, business as usual, continue doing the same things that you normally do. Most people tend to use it as work because business is business and the business continues on, does the same thing. But we could also use it in different situations where you might be working on something. Business as usual, just keep going with your normal routine.
[6:28]Okay, we'll continue through the dialogue. Um, what time did you get back to work? So, I was at work by 1pm after grabbing a quick lunch. When did I get back to work? By 1 p.m. By 1 p.m. Yeah, I was at work by 1 p.m. That means that 1 p.m. is the end of my lunch, and I was there by 1 p.m. Maybe 12 55, maybe 12 59, but I was definitely at work before 1 p.m. Or by 1 p.m. After grabbing a quick lunch. I use this phrase quite a bit, especially when it comes to food. Americans eat their food so quickly. We are always grabbing a bite. Grabbing a quick lunch. This is just pretty common when you go out quickly. You grab something physically, or you get a quick meal. You eat lunch very quickly, or you grab something that you buy and take away, or take out, something like that. So, after grabbing a quick lunch. And what about you? Makes sense. Uh, in the previous episode we talked about how American lunch breaks are so short. So, yeah, grab, like, you don't even stop, grab lunch, grab a sandwich or grab a snack, but the emphasis is really on speed. You ate it quickly, you bought it quickly, you grabbed it. Yeah, for my lunch, I made a quick mention of it. I had a decent lunch, said after a decent lunch I got back into the office about 1. So about means maybe 12 55, 12 50, maybe it was a little bit later, maybe 1 10 or 1 05. About is not a specific time, so about 1. So my work office culture maybe is not so strict about when you go back to work. About when is fine. About decent lunch. Decent means I was satisfied with my lunch. The lunch was tasty. It was filling. Um, it wasn't anything absolutely special, but it was good enough to fill me up and get me ready back to work. You'll hear the word decent to describe things like that. They are satisfying. They're good enough. They're adequate. So, if you go to the supermarket and you pay a decent price, a decent price means it's not too expensive and it's an average price. I'm happy with that price. I'm satisfied with that price. Um, if you're taking food, a decent amount is enough food to fill you up a satisfying amount. Or if you're hosting a party, a decent amount of people is enough people to make the party fun and enjoyable to have some nice conversations going. So a decent lunch was an okay lunch. It was satisfying for me. I would also use that if someone said, Hey, was that party fun? And it was okay. You know, it was decent. Yeah, it was decent. So it's, it's really just like straight down the middle. It wasn't fantastic, but it wasn't terrible either. Yeah, it was decent. It's pretty decent, I think. Yeah, I had fun. Right, straight down the middle. Nothing to write home about. Nothing super spectacular. And then, um, after lunch, well, after you went back into the office, what did you do from there? So I do want to make a note that when, you know, you're kind of doing your standard routine, we tend to start listing things and we often drop off that extra subject. So I started with, um, I was at work. I grabbed, you know, after grabbing a quick lunch and then I just kind of start listing things that I did. You know, sat at my desk, went through the day's emails, jumped into a couple of meetings. I basically listed three things back to back, okay? Very quickly, I just started to list a few of the things that I did. So, I kind of want to remind our students that when you do have this list, they all need to be in the same grammar structure. Sat, went, jumped. These are all in the past, right? Simple past, easy. But if you're going to make a list of things, like usually I do this, then we're going to need all of them to be in the present. Usually I sit, go, and jump. Now, of course, we can extend those phrases a little bit. I didn't just say sat, went, jumped, but I sat at my desk, went through the day's emails, then jumped into a couple of meetings. And I kept that past tense all the way through. So that's something that I noticed. Some of my students, they'll get the first one, but then they'll continue with the present or they'll continue with an infinitive. To jump, to do, to sit. And I'm like, no, no, no, we have to just keep the same idea. Give me that list, but if it's something like, they were sitting, going, and jumping. So if you're going to start with ing, keep going. They were sitting, then going, finally jumping. We're going to keep all of those together with the same tense, the same grammar structure. What about you, Mark? What did you do in English for the rest of your afternoon? Uh, yeah, I use the same grammar structure where we drop the I. I don't say I checked. I just said checked my emails, then had a chat with some workmates about the tasks we still had left for the week, looked over a couple of documents. So, again, when we're listing several actions in a row, the I disappears. We want to get through the list quickly. We can save words whenever we can. One specific phrase, looked over a couple of documents. Looked over is a good phrasal verb. Maybe my co worker or my colleague checked something and then he gives it to me. So I can double check it. I'm going to look over it again to make sure there's no mistakes, nothing's wrong, there's no errors, and it is absolutely perfect to give to the customer or to my boss. So if you look over something, you're looking closely at it to make sure there's nothing wrong. So I looked over a couple of documents. You had a good phrase in your one. I actually like the phrase looked over because if you look over something, we could physically be looking over the fence, right? So we are looking over something. But when it comes to documents, emails, something that we're reading, just like Mark said, you're checking over something. Okay, so you're looking through it. Okay, so we, I used something very similar. I said that I went through some emails. I went through some emails. So, this word, you know, looking through something, going through something. Now, I have a big list of emails, right? So, I really need to go through them. Okay, so this one, delete it. This one I should read. Okay, I'm going through it. I'm going through it. Yep, that looks good. We also use another one, scanning through something. Looking through, scanning through, went through, going through. So I kind of use all of these in different ways to basically describe that I am checking over them. I am looking at these, uh, with some good attention. I'm not just looking at my emails. Okay. Oh, sure. Whatever. I'm not just looking at my emails. I'm actually going through. Okay, each one. Yep. Scanning through would go a little faster. Okay, yeah, yeah, yeah, important information. Just scanning through this. Looks good. Looks good. So, it's kind of similar in that way. So, we are really paying attention. Not just looking at something, but going through. Um, what was the other word I used? When you have to, reading through. You also, in my script, I didn't go to any meetings or anything. I just looked over some documents and had a chat with my workmates, but you got to use a good collocation with meetings. Jumped into. Jumped into now. Remember Americans, we are always moving quickly. Americans seem to just have to do. We have to grab that lunch. We have to grab a quick bite. We have to jump into a meeting. So we are constantly moving around. Jumping around. But what we really mean is that we're moving pretty quickly. Okay, so I hopped into a meeting. I would also say hop into a meeting. Yep, hopped into the shower. Jumped into the shower. Hopped into a meeting. Jumped into a meeting. This physical idea of hop, hop, hop, like a rabbit, it means that we're just moving quite quickly. Okay, so I hopped into a meeting, um, I jumped into the car, I hopped into the car and went and had to drive away fast, right? I had to drive away pretty quickly. Hopped in, hopped into, jumped in, jumped into. When you say this, well, when I read your script, I imagined a virtual meeting. Because to jump into a Zoom call, or jump into a Teams meeting, you connect instantly and you have different windows or apps open on your computer. You jump from one app to another. So I imagine you were at your desk and you jumped into a meeting. You clicked join, and you zoomed across the other side of the world and saw your colleagues in a different place, but jumping into you connect quickly, and maybe the meeting is quite short, and then you can jump out when it's over. So I guess you could say that for virtual meetings. And could you say it for physical meetings? Definitely. Americans are always on the move. You know, um, I'm just gonna hop into a taxi real quick. I'm just gonna jump into a taxi real quick. That means I, I really don't have much time. So I can't be sitting around waiting for this. I really need to hop into this meeting. Hey, you know, oh my gosh, I've only got five minutes. Look, I've got to jump into this meeting over here. It's not going to take very long. When I'm finished, I'll get back to you. Okay, so hold on. I've got to do this. We can do it virtually, but we can also jump into a meeting or hop into a meeting that's going to be, like you said, quick, simple. I mean, they're never quick and that simple, but it's because Americans are always rushing around. We tend to use these for physical meetings and meetings online as well. Yes, uh, it makes my script sound quite casual. Um, obviously, being the British voice of high level listening, I mentioned I had my usual tea break. So, in your office, I don't think we have a designated time, not in British culture. Okay. Sometimes my students talk about tea time, or they want to know when tea time is. There is an old tradition, but in the modern world, people don't usually follow it. However, most offices in the UK, we'll have a break room, a microwave, or a kettle, or somewhere you can make hot drinks. There's probably a fridge where you can keep some snacks or sandwiches or your lunch. And probably every hour or so, a British worker will stand up, go to the break room, and make a cup of tea. Um, I think it's pretty normal for some British people to drink, like, ten cups a day, um, the caffeine content, right? Ten cups of tea, because the caffeine isn't that much. That's true. I guess you could compare it to drinking kind of a little bit caffeinated warm water, right? Delicious. Uh, yeah, if you had ten cups of coffee, you would be, like, shaking. You wouldn't be able to type. Ten cups of tea? Yeah, that actually sounds quite normal. You have one in the morning, before you go to work. One when you arrive at work. You do an hour of work, you have another one. Then it's lunch, so you have another one. And I think, yeah, it's easy to have a lot of tea. So, a tea break isn't one time in the office. A tea break could be several times. Even if you just want to stand up and get away from your computer for a second, go and have a cup of tea. So, my usual tea break means this is the time or around the same time I usually do it. You can also have a coffee break if you want to go and drink some coffee, and a bathroom break if you need to go to the bathroom. A short bathroom break is a polite, professional way to say you need to go to the toilet. So, yeah, a tea break, a coffee break, or a bathroom break. Useful phrase. Okay, so you, you would actually call it a bathroom break, um, not a toilet break. Right. In the work environment, yeah, that's the more professional word for it. I see. I see. Bathroom. Cause, um, yeah, that is kind of one difference, um, using the toilets in British English or using the restroom. Uh-huh, so take, I would say that we wouldn't probably call it a bathroom break at work. We would call it a bathroom break for kids at school, for sure. Okay, so we're going to take a quick bathroom break. Anyone who needs to use the restroom can use the restroom now, but that feels like something you talk about at school. And I don't know, Americans are so, um, we, we just really don't like the idea of you knowing that we're in the bathroom or that you are knowing that we're taking a restroom break. So we'll just say, um, yeah, going to take a quick break. Take a short break. Um, I'll be back. We probably wouldn't use bathroom break or restroom break, um, even at work. Just gonna take a quick break. It's none of your business. I'm gonna go do what I need to do. Use your imagination, yeah. And, uh, yes, use your imagination and I'll be back. A break, yeah. Yeah, absolutely. And then use that little break. Okay, so then, uh, we are tying up the afternoon. Mark, what did you do at the end of your afternoon?
[22:25]I rounded off the afternoon by getting everything sorted out for the next day. So, two phrasal verbs in that one. Oh, yeah. Rounded off the afternoon. Uh, imagine, imagining my schedule is from 9 to 5 p.m. I round off the afternoon at 4 p.m. or 4 30. So, it's the last part of my afternoon off in this phrasal verb. The second word, off, means to finish. You can use off to, uh, mean that it's finishing something. And so, round off. Off is the word that means finishing. So, maybe I'm doing some last minute, easy tasks, preparing for the next day. I rounded off the afternoon. You could also simply say, finish off. I finished off the afternoon. Sometimes I've had students ask me about these extra words because I could say, I finished the afternoon. And that would be totally correct, but I think native speakers like to add these extra words, make it a phrasal verb. And that style of talking is a bit more casual. It's a bit softer. It sounds less serious and businessy and more casual. Um, another example is, I sent over an email. You can say, I sent an email. I sent a text. But, I think native speakers, when they're trying to be more casual and just a bit more relaxed, we will make it a phrasal verb and say, I sent over an email. I sent over a message. And that's what I'm doing here. I finished off the afternoon. I rounded off the afternoon. And similarly for me, I wrapped up the day. Okay, so I wrapped up the day. Now, when I say I wrapped something up, W R A P P E D, wrapped up, wrapped up. You can think of it like a present, okay? So, uh, when you have a gift for someone and you wrap it up, okay, that up very similarly acts like you are finished. Yes, you can clean something, or you can clean it up. So if I clean the table, yeah, I'm cleaning, but if I cleaned up the table, everything's done, everything's finished. I cleaned everything. So, I wrapped it up. Now, this is one phrasal verb that you can't just wrap the afternoon, okay? You'd have to wrap it up, okay? You finished it completely, all right? I wrapped up, I tied up. These are two very, very similar phrases. They kind of sound the same. If you're wrapping a gift or tying something up, it's kind of like you're finally completing everything, okay? So, I wrapped up the day. I tied up the day by setting up my tasks for tomorrow. Think of it like, if I didn't set up my tasks, I wouldn't be finished with the day. I wouldn't feel like my day was completed. So, I wrapped up the day by doing this. Setting up my tasks for tomorrow. Now I feel like everything is finished, everything is tied up, and I feel like I've completed my day. Yeah, so, as we said at the beginning, uh, these are ordinary, normal afternoons. There's, uh, it's much of the same. So the phrase I used at the end of my script was fairly standard day, to be honest. Fairly standard day. I think the word standard used in this way is more common in British English. This is not like standard, um, like standard procedure or standard quality. Kind of like basic, right? Yeah, right. Yeah, this is my opinion. I think it's pretty standard. To use standard as an opinion phrase, I think is more common in the UK. And standard means it was like I expected. It was normal. It was not special in any way. So maybe I went on vacation or I went on a trip, and someone said, how was the hotel? How was your accommodation? The hotel was standard. Yeah, standard means it had a bed, uh, it had a small desk, a TV, a shower, or if I went to the cinema, was the movie? Oh, yeah, a standard action film. There were explosions, guns, there was a car chase, pretty standard. So, do you use that phrase or that word so much in the US? Um, you know, I mean, a standard hotel room, I could definitely see that because when you're booking something, you're not booking something deluxe, you're booking kind of standard. So I think of that as basic, right? You got what you came for. I sort of laugh because, um, it sounds like my dialogue is that basically I'm rushing around doing things, and yours is just kind of like, yeah. You know, I had a cup of tea, you know, talked to my mates. Yeah. Um, much of the same, you know, a decent lunch, uh, kind of did this, had my usual tea break, and I'm like, okay, I grabbed this. I sat down, I worked on this, I did that, I did that, I did that. And I think that actually pretty much sums up the standard workday for Americans versus Brits. I feel like Americans are always rushing around, and Brits are just kind of doing their own thing. Just drinking tea. Just drinking tea. Maybe because, um, the Americans are drinking so much coffee that we're all jazzed up all the time, while you guys are just slowly working through your cups of tea. What did you say at the end of your script? How was your, um, I just said it was a pretty standard afternoon. It was a pretty average afternoon. It was a pretty normal afternoon. Uh huh, yeah. Standard afternoon. Just kind of, it is what it is. Just pretty normal. The usual, the usual. "The usge". The "usge". You know, "the usge". "The usge". That's a good one. The usual, the usual bit of slang for you there. All right, well, thank you so much. We are going to be wrapping up our class here now, um, but we would like to go ahead and, um, tell you a bit about what we have planned. This is our first month of high level listening, and we're honestly having a great time. We love, love, love to hear, uh, from our students. We love reading your messages. We are so thankful each week for all these kind and helpful messages that you guys are sending us. And what we're hearing more and more is that you want more. Okay, you want more podcast episodes. You want more videos. Oh, this coming month, December and January, we're gonna be working on a project for you to start participating in more videos, more lessons. So I hope you stay tuned. We will have kind of a new set up for next week. Of course, we will continue our free live classes on Monday, and then we will start to continue to open up a Patreon and allow our students to join us for even more videos every month. Yes, so keep your eyes peeled. Keep an eye on our social media. We're on Facebook, YouTube, and on Crowcast as well. We will make some announcements there soon to give you a clear idea of what we have planned and what new formats, new shows that we have and want to share with you all. So yes, please stay tuned, stay tuned. Thank you so much for all your comments, especially on YouTube. Uh, we've gotten way more comments than we expected. And we replied to all of them, and yeah, all of them have been really nice and really kind. So thank you so much. And, uh, it just motivates us to keep making more, to know that people like it and enjoy it. Feels great. Uh, so thank you so much for following us, whether this is your first episode or whether you've been here since episode one. Thank you very much. All right, so we will see you again, same time, same place next week. Thank you everyone. See you soon. Thank you. Bye bye.
