Full video

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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.

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In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English

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to help you learn.

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I'm Beth.

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And I'm Georgie.

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You can find a video version of this podcast

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and a worksheet to help you learn

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on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

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So how is your week going, Georgie?

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It's going well. It's only Monday.

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I'm already quite tired.

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How about you, Beth?

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I'm OK. I'm not tired yet,

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but give me till this afternoon.

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So, Beth, what are we talking about today?

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Today we're going to talk about games.

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The kind of games we like playing.

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Maybe games we don't like as much.

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So shall we start the conversation?

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Yes, let's get started!

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So, Beth, do you enjoy games?

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It depends on the kind of games.

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I think if it's something physical where you're, I don't know,

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running around a park or being silly – sporty things.

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Those kind of fun games I enjoy.

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But if it's like board games or card games,

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honestly, I don't really like them.

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What about you?

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I do like games. I also like sporty games.

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We did that in the park, didn't we, with our team?

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We did, we did. Which was really fun and it's a good bonding experience.

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But I, unlike you, do like card games.

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And I enjoy playing them with friends in the pub.

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I can be quite awkward

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so sometimes if I feel like I don't want to talk anymore, I suggest a game.

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And then we don't have to talk to people anymore.

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I feel like if it's a card game where you have, like, a question

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and it's like, I don't know, you've got five seconds,

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like, name three modes of transport.

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Those kind of like talking, fun, laughing games with cards I enjoy.

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But if it's something to do with the hearts and the diamonds... urgh no.

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I just think I'd rather have a conversation

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and just talk to my friends or whoever I'm with.

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OK. So you don't like slow games,

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so probably you wouldn't like things like Monopoly, which go on

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for hours – your whole evening.

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Honestly, I think I had a bad experience as a child with Monopoly. This game...

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We went away with all of our neighbours.

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There were lots of people, and we played a game of Monopoly

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and it lasted about, I don't know, five hours.

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Probably not that long.

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Yeah. No, probably.

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Monopoly lasts for so long.

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It's so long.

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But also people get really aggressive and competitive with Monopoly,

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don't they?

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Is that because people cheat?

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Yeah. Well, people can cheat. Yeah, for sure.

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But people get... It's like they think the game is their real life

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and they get so angry and people lose friendships.

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That is my house!

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Now, you said 'cheat'.

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What does that mean?

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Well, 'cheat' is to, kind of, lie or say something that isn't true.

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For example, you might pretend that you have something and actually you don't.

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Cheating is seen as negative.

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Yes.

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It's like you're not following the rules as well.

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That's it, yeah.

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Do you like cheating?

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When I was a child,

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I liked to cheat.

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But no, because now it just feels dishonest.

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If I... if I win a game, I want to win because I actually was good enough

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or did well enough to win.

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Yes.

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Are you a cheat?

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I'm not a cheat.

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Because I think I'm... I'm too much of a...

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what we call a 'goody-goody', or someone who likes to follow the rules.

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So, Georgie, a quiz is a type of game, I guess.

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Do you like quizzes?

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Yes, I also like quizzes.

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I used to go quite a lot to something

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we have a lot in the UK called a pub quiz, where you go to a pub,

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there are lots of teams and you answer questions with your team.

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And I used to really enjoy that because

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a) you're socialising with your friends in the pub,

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but I find it really satisfying when you get the questions right.

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I've actually won a couple of pub quizzes.

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Have you?

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Yeah.

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Well done.

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It's really hard sometimes when all of the questions are general knowledge

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that you don't know anything about.

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That's really boring.

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But when you know the questions, it's fun.

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Let's recap the vocabulary we had during the conversation.

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We had 'board games'.

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These are games where players usually move pieces

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around a flat board like chess.

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We had 'quiz', which is a game where you answer questions.

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'Cheat' means to be dishonest when playing a game,

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and you can also call a person a 'cheat' if they are dishonest in a game.

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We had 'goody-goody', which is someone who likes following rules, like me.

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And you can do a 'quiz' on our website.

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Go to bbclearningenglish.com and you'll also find a worksheet there

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so you can test what you've learnt.

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See you then.

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Bye.