Full video

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Hello and welcome to Real Easy English.

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In this podcast, we have real conversations

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in easy English to help you learn.

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I'm Neil.

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And I'm Georgie.

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You can watch a video version of this podcast

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and find a free worksheet to help you learn.

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Go to bbclearningenglish.com.

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Hi Georgie. You're looking very summery today.

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Yes, well, that is because I'm going on my summer holiday tomorrow.

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Well, that's exciting and very useful because we're talking

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about summer plans today.

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It's summer in the UK

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at the moment, which is a time when people are often busy.

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So, Georgie, you're going on holiday.

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Tell me more about that.

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So, I'm at an age now where lots of my friends are getting married,

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so I have a few weddings this year.

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But something that's quite traditional before a wedding is

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for the bride or the groom to have, like, a celebration.

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This could be a party.

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Or more recently, it's become quite common to have a weekend away

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with a lot of their friends.

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So, that's what I'm doing this weekend.

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And that's what's called a 'hen party' for a woman, or a 'stag party' for a man

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in the UK. I think in the US it's different.

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A 'bachelor party'.

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Yes. What about you, Neil?

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What are you up to this summer?

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Well, we're not going away.

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We're staying in the UK, but that's OK for me

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because the weather is actually nice in the summer here, usually.

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So, we might do some day trips, go to the beach, maybe a bit of camping

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with the kids and then go on our proper holiday in October.

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That sounds nice.

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So, if you're not going on holiday, do you have any goals,

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like things you want to complete or get done during the summer?

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Well, I have a garden and it always needs things doing to it,

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but actually the only thing I really do is mow the lawn –

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cut the grass using that machine called a lawn mower.

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I seem to do that a lot in the summer.

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How about you, Georgie?

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Have you got any goals or plans,

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things you want to do over the summer?

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So, I don't have a garden at my flat,

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but we do have a roof terrace and at the moment it looks pretty disgusting.

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It's not in a very good state.

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So, my housemates and I want to clean that up a little bit.

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And we're also planning to buy some outdoor furniture,

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maybe even a barbecue.

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Wow, that sounds good.

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Do you like DIY when you have to build and make things?

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It's not my favourite thing,

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to be honest. I think I'm a bit too lazy for it.

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But if there's a... you know, a goal

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and something nice that we'll have at the end,

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then I'll do it. Why not?

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I love to barbecue in the summer.

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Do you?

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Yeah.

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What do you like to put on the barbecue?

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Well, all kinds of things.

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So, people often think about burgers and sausages,

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but I like to do some other things. Quite a lot of fish.

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I like to grill fish on the barbecue.

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You're making me hungry.

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It's nearly lunchtime.

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Yeah. And something that you can't do in the UK in the winter,

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which you can do in the summer, which I love, is stay out late

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in the evening because it's light.

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Right now it's light until almost 10 o'clock at night.

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So, I like barbecuing in the summer.

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Georgie, is there anything that you do or

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like doing in the summer that you can't do other times of year?

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Good question. Yes.

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I really like going on picnics with friends,

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and I actually did that last week with some friends.

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So, you just buy lots of small snacks from the shop,

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or you can cook stuff, I guess, and bring it.

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You find a park and then sit and eat with friends, maybe play some music.

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Let's recap the vocabulary we heard in this conversation.

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Starting with the question 'what are you up to?'

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Which means what are you doing?

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What are you up to tomorrow, Georgie?

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I am going to the airport tomorrow.

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We've also had 'DIY', which is short for 'do it yourself'.

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And it means tasks around the house,

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like painting or building furniture. For example,

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I'm going to do some DIY on my roof terrace this summer.

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We've heard 'barbecue'.

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Now a barbecue is an outdoor grill for cooking on,

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but it's also the name of the meal that you cook on the barbecue,

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or the event or party that you have with barbecued food.

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A 'picnic' is when you take food to an outdoor space, like a park or the beach.

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You usually sit on a blanket and eat on the ground.

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And we heard 'mow the lawn'.

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And that means cutting the grass with a lawn mower.

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And that's it for this episode of Real Easy English.

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Now test the vocabulary you've learnt using the worksheet on our website.

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Find it in the links below this episode or visit bbclearningenglish.com.

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Goodbye!