Full video

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Hello and welcome

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to Real Easy English,

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the podcast where we have real conversations

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in easy English to help you learn.

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I'm Georgie.

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And I'm Neil.

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Don't forget that there's a video version of this podcast on our website,

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bbclearningenglish.com.

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You can find subtitles to read along and you can download a free worksheet.

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Hello, Neil.

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Hi, Georgie.

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Happy New Year.

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Thank you. Happy New Year to you too.

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Today we are talking about the start of a new year.

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So we're going to talk about some of our plans for the new year.

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And we'll also make some New Year's resolutions.

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So this is a tradition where people make promises to themselves for the new year.

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Yeah. They're difficult to keep aren't they?

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They are.

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But we try anyway.

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Exactly. So, are you excited about the new year, Neil?

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I think so. 2026. Can you believe it?

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I can not believe it.

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OK, so have you got any big plans?

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Um, well, I'm going to start the year with a big trip, actually,

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with my family.

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Um, we're going to South Africa because this is where my parents had their honeymoon.

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And my mum also used to live there for a while.

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So it's a dream of hers to go with the whole family.

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Um, and she can show us around a bit.

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What about you?

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Well, I don't have any big plans yet,

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but it's an important year at school, especially for my daughter.

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Um, and so when she finishes that, her school year and her exams,

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maybe we'll do something special to mark that occasion.

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So, Georgie, it's impossible to talk about the new year without mentioning resolutions.

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So what are your resolutions?

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I think my main one is to make fewer resolutions,

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because last year I made too many and it was really hard to keep them

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and it made me feel very bad about myself.

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So this year, I'm just going to keep it simple.

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Health, so running and um, language learning, Spanish, I need to do that.

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But for running, I think this time I need a big goal.

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So I'm a bit scared about it, but I think I'm going to book a half marathon.

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Um, because then I can make a training programme and feel really motivated.

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Um, I think that's what I need.

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I think that's a great idea.

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Um, what about you, Neil?

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Any New Year's resolutions?

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Well, usually once Christmas and New Year are over,

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we have the two darkest, saddest months of the year.

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January and February.

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And normally I really just wish that those months go away

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and that we get into spring.

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But this year I think I'm going to enjoy every day, regardless,

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you know, even if the weather is awful and it's dark and cold, I still want

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to get out there and appreciate it rather than wish my life away.

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So, Neil, do you have any goals for this year?

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So something you want to achieve?

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Yeah, I think I don't really want to take up something new.

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'Take up' means 'start a new activity'.

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But I think my goal is to become good at something I like doing.

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Right. And what could that be?

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So I like learning Spanish, but I'm not very good.

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I'm not very dedicated,

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and I'm always jealous of people who can speak really well.

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Mmm. Um, and the same with my guitar.

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Yeah. I always want to get better.

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Yeah. A goal could be to write a song and produce it.

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Yeah. And play it on this podcast.

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If you're all really unlucky.

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I don't think anyone wants that.

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Thank you for your honesty.

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Right. Let's recap the language we heard during the conversation.

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We heard 'New Year's resolution', which is a promise you make to yourself

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at the start of a year to start doing something good

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or stop doing something bad.

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We heard 'goals'.

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Now, goals are things that we say that we want to do and try to achieve them.

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We also heard 'motivated',

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which is a feeling of really wanting to do something and doing it.

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For example, I feel motivated to run a half marathon this year.

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And we heard the expression 'to wish your life away'.

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If you wish your life away, you don't appreciate what's happening now.

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You look far into the future.

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That's it for this episode of Real Easy English.

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Do you have a New Year's resolution?

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We'd love to hear about it.

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Email us at. learningenglish@bbc.co.uk

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Is one of your New Year's resolutions to improve your English?

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If so, go to our website,

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bbclearningenglish.com, where you can find all kinds of activities

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and quizzes to help you improve.

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Goodbye for now.

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Goodbye.