Unexpected English!

Louis

Looking for some short, sweet, real life English to improve your listening skills or just have fun? Never too long, never boring, and always something worthwhile for the curious listener or English learner! Transcript included too! Check out the past episodes for more fun!

  1. 10/17/2023

    Jerusalem [Music listening for humanity]

    [EP91] So now we have another war, and there is only hope or despair. And, uhh yeah, this song is not enough, but, for a little bit of hope that we need to… we need to keep our humanity, I’m sharing it with you. The lyrics are in the show notes, so there it is.  -- SONG -- I woke up this morning And none of the news was good Death machines were rumblin' across the ground where Jesus stood And the man on my TV told me That it had always been that way And there was nothing anyone could do or say And I almost listened to him Yeah, I almost lost my mind And I regained my senses again And looked into my heart to find That I believe that one fine day All the children of Abraham Will lay down their swords forever In Jerusalem Ah now maybe I'm only dreamin' And maybe I'm just a fool But I don't remember learnin' how to hate in Sunday school Somewhere along the way I strayed And I never looked back again But I still find some comfort now and then Then the storm comes rumblin' in And I can't lay me down And the drums are drummin' again And I can't stand the sound But I believe there'll come a day When the lion and the lamb Will lie down in peace together In Jerusalem And there'll be no barricades then And there'll be no wire or walls And we can wash all this blood from our hands And all this hatred from our souls And I believe that on that day All the children of Abraham Will lay down their swords forever In Jerusalem.  ***** "Humanity a word for the qualities that make us human" It can't be this current evil alone. We must believe in something more. [Song courtesy of Steve Earle Music]

    5 min
  2. 07/31/2022

    Yogurtland! or, What's your favorite flavor? [American Listening]

    [EP 89] Summer finale! DELICIOUS YOGURT! Listen and follow with the transcription below to help you to improve your listening skills. INTRO: Hi everybody, and welcome to Episode 89 of Unexpected English, the podcast where you can practice your English listening in just five minutes, listening to something fun! Now, I know it's summertime, and that means it's hot. In fact. it's too hot. It's just too hot! And if you want some some, some vocabulary about hot? Go back and look for the hot episode where I give you some vocabulary. But this episode, no, this episode, we want to cool down, we're going to cool you down by taking a little visit to  yogurtland where we can have some nice cool, delicious yogurt. So let's go! ~~~ Okay, so here I am at YogurtLand and I'm going to talk to the young man who's working here. Maybe he can tell us a little bit about this place called YogurtLand. How many flavors do we have? We have around 12 flavors. And what are some of the most popular flavors? The most popular are the vanilla and the chocolate ice creams, the fruit punch sorbet, which is our seasonal flavor for this month, the tarot and the plain tart. Taro, and what is that, I'd never heard of that flavor. Taro is a unique flavor. to say the least. Okay! It'd be hard to describe, And after they get the yogurt, then what's all this stuff over here? So the toppings are... you put that on top of your yogurt and we have a range from fruits to candies to cookies, peanuts, sprinkles, whipped cream, and then we have sauces over here which you can also add. What kind of sauces do we have? Salted caramel, marshmallow, chocolate shell, fudge and peanut butter Hi guys, what's your favorite flavor here? I don't know. Oh, you haven't had it yet! How about you? I think... I don't know. No, so, is this your first time here? No, but I like the French Vanilla. Okay, so there's one guy who knows what he likes, the French vanilla. Is that when you said? I like the French Vanilla too! Ah, this guy, NOW he decided. I like cheesecake. Oh cheesecake! Okay, beautiful. All right. Well, I hope you enjoy your yogurt and thanks for listening. Thank you! *** Okay, that was it. That was the final episode for the summer. I hope you enjoyed it and we'll see you... who knows when! Please follow on Spotify or wherever and tell your friends who might like the podcast!!

    4 min
  3. 07/03/2022

    Hot Dogs at Barrio Dog in San Diego! [American English Listening]

    [EP 88] Unexpected English is the suprising podcast where you can have a fun listening experience in under five minutes! Transcription below to help you!  Intro: Hey everybody, it's Fourth of July weekend here as I'm recording this. And that means everybody's off waving their American flags and eating hot dogs and doing whatever else they do while they're ignoring the fall of our democracy. Who cares, right? It's not important. The only important thing on the Fourth of July is hamburgers and hot dogs! So, are you ready? This is episode 88 of Unexpected English, and it just might have something to do with hot dogs. Okay, so let's go! So here I am in beautiful San Diego, more specifically in Barrio Logan on Logan Ave, and I was walking down the street and I saw a place called Barrio Dog. And so that name, Barrio Dog, that kind of hit me. So I thought I would go in and ask the owner to explain a little bit about this place. Well, thank you for stopping in. My name is Pablo Rios. I'm one of the owners here at Barrio Dog. Barrio dog is a celebration of the art, history and culture that comes from this neighborhood, the low-rider culture. So what we've done is, we've combined a classic comfort food like hotdogs, and given  you an environment to come and enjoy the neighborhood, the lowrider culture. So it's a it's a neighborhood place with a cultural feel to it. And you serve mainly dogs! Yeah, we're a hot dog restaurant. All of our hot dogs are 100% Angus beef. We make all of our own bread fresh daily, what we're known for when we started this place with this with, a hot dog called El Cholito, it's a Tijuana style. Tijuana style hot dog, which would...what would Tijuana style be f for people who don't know. It's a dog that has the works so a Tijuana style dog has grilled onions,it has cheese, sour cream, salsa verde, diced tomato, red onion, jalapeño, crunchy garlic... Oh ok, is that enough yet people, is that enough, does that sound good enough yet? That is a fully loaded dog, plus I see there's five or six or seven other kinds?  Well, we got, we got a half, we got at least twelve different hotdogs you can always try. We have flavors from all over the world. So we don't just celebrate the flavor from Mexico. We have German style. Japanese style. Cuban style. Wow, that's interesting. So what are a couple of the most popular uhh flavors? Do I say flavors? Or style, style, dogs! The Tijuana style is really popular. We also have a chili cheese dog called El Vaquero. We make our chili in-house. Another really popular one is called El Bombero, if you're into spicy hot dogs. It's got seven different chili peppers. Oh, you know, I would say that sounds good, but it sounds better than good. It sounds like I'm ready to have some of that... and I see you've got some good beers on tap too. Yeah, what we're doing here is we're showcasing sixteen of San Diego and Mexico's finest craft beers. So we have flavors as simple as a pilsner all the way to guava cider. So come on by! All right, you heard it here first people! Next time you're in San Diego, head on down to Barrio Logan head on down to Logan Ave, and hit up Barrio Dogs for a real experience. Thanks a lot for your time. Thank you. ***** That was the episode, thanks for listening! Please follow on Spotify, leave a good review, tell your friends, and have a great summer! Why not listen to the other wild episodes too!

    4 min
  4. 05/13/2022

    The Candy Queen! [American English listening]

    [EP 86] Do you have five minutes to practice English listening in a fun way? Great! In this episode we interview the Candy Queen! Trascription in the notes to help you! [Transcription] Hi everybody, and welcome to Episode 86, of Unexpected English podcast where you can practice your English listening, with a transcription to help you, in under five minutes. Now this one is really short, it's not long at all, but it's a good one. And you know we have an expression when something is not long but it's good we say it's "short, but sweet." And this one you'll find out is definitely short but sweet. Now, you just have to make me one promise. If this episode of Unexpected English makes you smile, you have to share it with somebody, okay? Just just send them the link or share it on Instagram or something. Because I know you're listening on Spotify and you could do that. And that would be great. That is if you like it, and I hope you do. So let's go! (bump) So I was walking down the street and I spotted an interesting sign that said "The Candy Pushers" and I thought, what's that? And I looked inside and sure enough, it's full of candy! So I thought I would go inside and speak to the... owner? Yeah, I'm the owner. My name is Shannon. I'm the Candy Queen of the Candy Pushers. Oh, hold it right there! We are talking to the candy queen! Okay, so relax everybody. I know it's exciting, but... I'm the Candy Queen of the Candy Pushers. My wife and I own the business, and she's the Fudge Master. And we have... And you say the fudge master, does that mean she makes the fudge? Fresh homemade fudge every week. Oh, oh, okay. I'm sorry people. Hold on. I have to get over this, because I'm a little excited -- it's fudge! Yeah, we make and rotate through 48 flavors a year. What kind of flavors of fudge exist? There's the Fudge Packer. We have Lemon Blueberry uh Cheesecake. Citrus Bliss, which is an orange and lemon essential oils mix of fudge. We have Chocolate, Chocolate Walnut, Vanilla Pralines... Oh, okay, do people get, like, addicted to this? It sounds a little addicting! Yes. 100% We have people who come in every week to buy their fudge. Because the chocolate does something to you, right? Well, it makes you happy and puts a smile on your face. Oh, there you go! So okay, people next time you're on University Avenue... University and Richmond. University and Richmond, stop by the Candy Push... If you don't like fudge, there's a whole, like, wall full of other kinds of candies too. What is... We have between twelve and thirteen hundred other bin and packaged candies Twelve and thirteen hundred, That is one thousand two hundred different kinds of candies. It's true. Well, I won't ask for the names of all those candies. I'll just say thanks a lot for your time. You're welcome and have a flavorful day! *** Thanks for listening! If you liked it please FOLLOW on Spotify or Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Instagram too! IG: @UnexpectedEnglish Seriously ... if you like the podcast, please follow, share, and Hey! leave 5 stars on Apple Podcasts if you can!

    4 min
  5. 04/19/2022

    The Salt Cave [American English Listening]

    [EP85] Unexpected English brings you surprising audio with a transcription to help you practice your English listening in less than five minutes. This time, we visit a salt cave for some haloterapy.  Come join us! Okay, so I was walking through the mall and I saw a place called The Salt Escape. And it had some... Well, it looked like something I had never seen before. So I thought I would go in and find out a little more. So I'm talking to the... the owner?  I'm talking to someone inside who I thought maybe they can tell me... Okay, I'm talking to somebody who could tell me: What is The Salt Escape? The Salt Escape is basically a halotherapy... Hold up... a what therapy? It's halotherapy which is a... Halo, halotherapy... Halo, H-A-L-O as in breathing in salt to cure many different ailments you might have whether it's asthma, colds, sinusitis, allergies, and it also is absorbed through your skin, so it helps with psoriasis... OK, wait wait  now, so you tell us what it helps. But what's the deal? Do people go into a room full of salt? Or what is it? OK, so we have a cave... that you...  A cave, okay, we're going slow so people can follow, So I come into salt escape, And then I get put in a cave,  a salt cave... A salt cave that has 7000 pounds of Himalayan sea salt on the ground. And then there's salt lamps all around and salt on the walls. And then we also pump salt in at different intervals throughout that 45 minutes. Like salt air, you're saying? You pump in salty air? Um-hum, salty air, we take the salt, we put it in a generator that breaks it down into fine little crystal mist, and we pump into the cave while you're there, sitting in lounge chairs relaxing.. not lounge chairs but reclining chairs. I'm just sitting in a room...basically I'm sitting in a room full of salt. Salt.And breathing it and reaping all the benefits that it has to offer. Do.. do I get naked when I do that? Noooo..Oh, and okay, so it'll go through.. We keep it kind of clean in here. OK, so I saw the salt goes through my clothes... and... It goes through your skin, it also, it's absorbed through your skin, but it's the breathing that really helps any respiratory issues that you have. So yeah, so it's primarily as a respiratory... But, but also good through the skin absorbing the skin, if you have any kind of skin issues, it helps with that as well. But it helps with anxiety and depression all kinds of wonderful things. But our, our cave is very, very relaxing. It's dark and quiet and we play meditation music so it's... Ohhh okay don't say it, ohhh, okay, so well, that sounds beautiful! And how long is a session? 45 minutes. So for 45 minutes, I get to sit in the salt cave... and relax... and breathe in. Okay people, well you heard it here first, the, the mysteries and marvels of the salt cave, all are 100% organic Himalayan salt. Alright, thanks and thanks for your time. Thank you! Come visit us! *** Thanks for listening! If you liked it please FOLLOW on Spotify or Apple podcasts or wherever you listen. Instagram too! @UnexpectedEnglish Seriously ... if you like the podcast, please share it, thanks!

    4 min
  6. 03/15/2022

    Search and Rescue! [American English Listening Podcast]

    [EP84] Unexpected English is the podcast where you can practice listening to real American English in just five minutes! This episode is called Search and Rescue. I hope you like it!  [Transcription] Hey everybody, you're listening to Unexpected English. I've got a new episode for you. And it's a good episode because it's about people doing good things. And I think we need to hear about people doing good things because there's so much..... bad stuff happening out there, as you know, so we won't talk about that. Instead I'll tell you this episode is about search and rescue. There is a transcription in the notes to help you if you need it. And if you want to help the podcast then please leave a good review on iTunes or subscribe on Spotify, or just tell your friends Okay, here we go!  (Interview) Okay, so I was talking to a neighbor and I found out that he volunteers for some kind of interesting organization. So I thought maybe he would tell us about that. Actually, my wife and I both volunteer with Sheriff's Search and Rescue, and we are a group of 150 volunteers that go out and look for lost or missing people anywhere in the county. Okay, so that's the sheriff's...  Search and rescue And you volunteer to go find lost people. Now, how does that work? Well, you know, Grandpa goes out for a walk doesn't come home. You call, you know, if you're in the county, you call the sheriff's dispatch, explain it. The deputy will come out and investigate and if it's within reason for us to do, they will dispatch it. So they send out a text message that there's a call out and where it is, and we go out and search for him. Okay, so what was the last search you went out on? Or some that you remember? Well, Chelsea King, we looked for her for well over a week, Amber DuBois. And these are, like, girls who went missing? Yeah. Chelsea King went missing, actually, 12 years ago and was murdered by a perpetrator. Oh my gosh! So we're talking about a missing girl who they didn't know what happened.... They called out Search and Rescue, and we worked on that for well over a week. And in the end, did they find her? Yes, she was located, unfortunately, deceased. Oh my goodness. So it isn't always a happy ending, I guess. No, it isn't. But it's it's a necessary thing, even if it's a homicide case, and we're sent out to see if we can locate the victim. It's necessary, you know, people need to be found and returned to their families. And how about one with a happy ending? Let's give us a happy ending. Oh, there's lots of happy endings. I don't remember the person's name. But down in National City one time we were looking for grandpa who'd only lived with the woman for a week. He'd come here from Texas, and when we found him – we located him about two o'clock in the morning – and she asked if she could thank everybody. We gathered all the searchers around and, through the tears, she said, "I never thought I'd see my Dad alive again. Thank you." Okay, so there you have it. That's a... that's a great story. And I appreciate the time you took talking to us. Oh, my pleasure. **** Thats it! Please support the podcast by following, sharing on your social media, or leaving a five star review on iTunes! How to leave a review on Apple Podcasts Open the Podcasts app on your iPhone, iPad, or Mac. Navigate to the page of the podcast you want to leave a review for. ...Scroll down to find the subhead titled "Ratings & Reviews." Under one of the highlighted reviews, select "Write a Review." Five stars for your favorite English podcast! Just do it!

    4 min
  7. 12/12/2021

    Let's make beer! [American English listening]

    [EP 81] In this episode, we visit a place that helps people who want to make beer... or where you can just visit and taste the beers that are available! As always, Unexpected English offers you practice listening to fun, and in less than five minutes. Use the complete transcription below to help you if you need it! Hi everybody, welcome back to another episode of Unexpected English. This is episode 81, and it's a very short episode because I know it's getting to be a very busy time with the holidays. We're in December now, everybody's busy, but I thought I would give you just one more podcast before the year ended. So let's go! [Interview] Alright, so here we are at Ballast Point Brewery. How, how long has this been here, this place? Well, this place has been here longer than Ballast Point brewing actually has existed. This was the very first Ballast Point. So we started originally as Home Brew Mart. Home brew means if you're making that beer at home, right? That's right! For people making their own beer at home. You can do the same thing with wine and all of that. So we started as a Home Brew Mart in '92. And do a lot of people make beer at home? More than you might think! It's a pretty popular business for sure. Ever since it became legal in the US in the 80s, it's become a burgeoning thing to do by, by yourself at home. Alright, so you can make beer at home, if you know how, and you buy your supplies here. That's right buy your supplies here, your ingredients chances are you have quite a bit of the equipment that you need already in your kitchen, nd all you would need to know is what goes into beer and what the ingredients need in order to become a good beer. So originally, this was the Home Brew Mart to help people brew their own beers, and then they expanded and got the brewery location here as well. Yes, so we started as Home Brew Mart as a way to get into the brewing industry. Our founder figured that was a good way to get started in the brewing industry. So four years after we opened in '96 is when Ballast Point officially became a brewery and started to sell to the public. And then from there, 10 years later, we opened a larger production facility and has since exploded in production. So, are there particular styles of beer that Ballast Point is known for? Yes, we're very well known for the sculpin IPA. It's a very dry, very clean drinking dry IPA. It's a kind of classic for the West Coast, but we're known for several other IPAs, as well as some flagship beers that we've been brewing for decades now, like the California Koelsch and the California Amber.  Alright, you know the only problem... every time I do this, it makes me thirsty... makes me thirsty. Okay, thanks for your time. And thank you for listening! P.S. Do you enjoy podcast? Then please tell your friends who may enjoy it as well. Word of mouth really helps!  Follow on Spotify and Instagram, and tell your friends! THANKS for listening and for your support!

    3 min

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About

Looking for some short, sweet, real life English to improve your listening skills or just have fun? Never too long, never boring, and always something worthwhile for the curious listener or English learner! Transcript included too! Check out the past episodes for more fun!