– English Lyrics

Lyrics & Translation

[English]

Hey everybody, welcome to bonus episode number 107  of the Culips English Podcast. How is it going?  

My name is Andrew. I am your host, and I am your  English study buddy. And I'm back here for another  

week to help you with your English learning.  If you're new to the bonus episode series,  

let me quickly explain what it is. In this series,  I just tell you some stories from my everyday life  

as a Canadian guy living abroad in South Korea.  And I hope that by listening to these stories,  

you will be able to B.I.G.B. B.I.G.B is our motto  for the series, and it stands for build your  

fluency, increase your knowledge of the culture  of English-speaking people, grow your vocabulary,  

and become a better communicator. So, if those are  your goals with your English studies, then you're  

in the right place. And I think you will enjoy  this series very, very much. Before we get started  

with this week's story, I have a few announcements  that I want to make. The first one is about our  

small-group conversation classes. If you are a  Culips member, you are welcome to join us for our  

small-group conversations that we have each and  every week. This week, we will be talking about  

digital modesty, the topic of digital modesty.  And actually, I had a conversation with my co-host  

Anna about this in a Chatterbox episode that we  released not too long ago. So, if you haven't  

heard that conversation yet, I'm going to put the  link for that episode in the description for this  

episode. So, you can check that out and listen to  it and you can get up to date about what digital  

modesty is. But essentially, digital modesty is  just the idea of being very, very cautious and  

careful about what information we share online.  So that's the topic for this week's small group  

discussion class. And we have three of them  happening this week. The first will be happening  

on Monday, June 24th at 6 p.m. Ireland time. Now,  that will be hosted by our study guide writer,  

Alina. The second class will be happening Tuesday,  June 25th at 7 p.m. Eastern time. So Eastern time  

is like the eastern part of North America. That  class will be hosted by Indiana, our other study  

guide writer. And then I will also be hosting  a class that will be happening Thursday, June  

27th at 8 p.m. Korean time. The classes will be  happening on Zoom. And if you're a Culips member,  

then you can join the classes just by logging  into your Culips account and finding the schedule.  

You'll also be able to change the schedule so you  can see it displayed in your local time zone. So  

that's convenient for you so you don't have to  do the calculation in your head. You can see what  

time it is in your time zone. And then you can  also find the information to join the Zoom class.  

So, I hope many of you will be participating and  many of you will join my class because I want to  

talk with you about this topic. I think that will  be really interesting. So that's the schedule  

for this week, everyone. Please join us on Zoom  for these small-group discussions about digital  

modesty. The second announcement I want to make is  about Culips membership. If you sign up and become  

a Culips member, you will get so many benefits  and bonuses, including interactive transcripts  

and helpful study guides for all of our episodes.  In the study guides, you will find explanations  

and examples of the key parts of the episode that  we think that you need to know to improve your  

English. There's also a comprehension quiz for  testing your understanding and some questions that  

you can use for speaking practice or for writing  practice. Maybe you want to write a journal entry  

in response to what you've heard on Culips,  something like that. You can do that with the  

prompts that are in the study guide. Plus, there's  more. You get access to our member-only series,  

the Fluency Files. You can join us for the  weekly small-group conversation classes as well,  

like I mentioned earlier. And there's more than  that. The list of benefits and bonuses goes on and  

on and on. So, you can find all of the details and  sign up and become a Culips member by visiting our  

website, Culips.com, or by following the link that  we'll put in the description for this episode.  

Let's get started with this week's story. So, for  this week, I am going to tell you about what I got  

up to last weekend, specifically what I got up  to last Sunday. I had just a really wonderful,  

relaxing, and adventurous day. You may be  wondering how a day can be both relaxing and  

adventurous at the same time, but it was. And I'll  explain how it was in just a moment. But yeah,  

my wife and I, we had this just fantastic day  on Sunday, and so I thought I would share with  

you what we got up to. And I'll start by asking  you a question. That is, how do you decide what  

you're going to do in your free time? How do  you decide what you're going to do in your free  

time? Yeah. For my wife and I, usually we get  to spend one day together. Our Monday to Friday  

is usually pretty busy, and it's jam-packed with  work and some other stuff that we have going on.  

And then usually one day of my weekend, I will  spend doing Culips, making the bonus episode,  

and preparing this episode. And then one  day a week, usually Sunday, is our free day,  

and we get to go out and do something exciting,  maybe go on a date or an adventure, something like  

that together. And so usually what we start asking  each other around Thursday or Friday is like,  

"What should we do on Sunday? What do you want to  do on Sunday?" And I don't know. You know, Seoul,  

where we live, is a very big city, and obviously  it's a mega city in the world. So, there are so  

many different places to explore. There's always  things happening, different cultural events,  

different concerts, different just everything  that you can imagine, different restaurants,  

different cafes, pop-up stores. This is going on.  That is going on. So, there's always something to  

do, but still, sometimes it's difficult to answer  that question, "What do you want to do?" And so,  

when my wife and I asked each other that question,  "What should we do this upcoming Sunday?" We had a  

little bit of difficulty. We were like, "Hmm. What  should we do exactly?" It's really easy to find  

yourself stuck in the same routine, right? You  go to the same neighborhoods, to the same cafes,  

the same restaurants, the same shops, and the  same parks, and you can do things over and over  

and over again, which can be nice sometimes,  but other times it's nice to keep things fresh  

and keep things new. So, what I've been trying  to do is kind of make a mental list when I hear  

about something exciting happening or see about  something exciting happening, then I make a little  

mental note like, "Oh, that would be cool to  check out," or "That would be good to do." And  

one of the things that I noticed that I thought  could be cool to do is that the library here in  

Seoul is hosting these outdoor reading events. I  don't know if they're like reading events per se,  

because there's not really any activity involved,  but what they've done is set up different reading  

areas in different places around downtown Seoul.  And the idea is that you can go and hang out  

and lounge in one of these cool outside spaces  and just hang out and do some reading. And so,  

I made a little mental note when I saw that. I  think I noticed it on Instagram, perhaps, maybe.  

And I thought, "Hey, that would be cool to check  out." So, when my wife and I were discussing,  

"Hey, what should we do on the weekend?" Then I  threw that out to her. I was like, "Oh, why don't  

we go to City Hall?" Because that's where one of  the big reading spaces is. The way that the Seoul  

City Hall is set up is that there's the City Hall  building, and then in front of City Hall, there's  

this big square. And sometimes in the winter,  they have an ice-skating rink set out in front  

of City Hall. And I've talked about that on Culips  before. And in the summer, it's just a big field,  

and they have different cultural activities. But  right now, it's set up with these outdoor sofas,  

like these inflatable, not really inflatable,  like beanbag sofas that are all set up outside.  

And there's little coffee tables there, and there  are books set up. And the idea is just to promote  

reading in the city, I suppose. So, I thought,  "Hey, that could be cool to check out." I threw  

out the idea there to my wife, and she said,  "Yeah, let's do it." So, we decided to go and  

check out the reading space in front of Seoul City  Hall. And actually, in the old City Hall building,  

there is a branch of the Seoul Library as well.  So, it's kind of connected with the Seoul Library.  

So that's what we decided to do for our date  day last week. And so, we headed downtown to  

Seoul. We rode the subway down there, and we  had lunch first. There was a restaurant that  

my wife wanted to check out. And when we  went there, this happens often in Seoul,  

people listening from Seoul will probably be  able to connect with me on some level here and  

empathize with this statement. But we went to  the restaurant, and it was just a beautiful,  

bright, very hot, sunny day. But there were so  many people out and about downtown that when  

we went to the restaurant, there was a huge line  to get in. And I'm one of those guys that can't  

really wait too long to go into a restaurant. I  was pretty hungry at that point, and I said, "I  

can wait like 15 minutes. But if it's going to be  30 minutes, 45 minutes, an hour, I don't have the  

patience just to wait in line to eat lunch." So,  my wife was on the same page as me, and she said,  

"OK, we'll come back to this restaurant" that  she wanted to go to another day. Because, yeah, I  

just, I can't do it. I can't wait that long to get  into a restaurant. So, we just went to a different  

restaurant that was in the neighborhood, in the  vicinity of the one that she originally wanted to  

go to. We had a quick lunch, and then we went to  a cafe. And at the cafe, it was really cool. It  

was a cafe that my wife had visited before, so she  wanted to take me to show me this cafe. Because it  

was a Korean rice-cake cafe. And that kind of rice  cake is called tteok, which is a little bit hard  

for me to pronounce. But tteok is the Korean word  for rice cake. And I have to be honest with you  

guys, I don't know if you have ever tried Korean  rice cake, but it's very chewy. It's like a heavy,  

chewy food. And there's not a whole lot of flavor,  at least to my Western palate. When I first  

arrived in Korea, I remember the first time that I  tried rice cake, and I thought, "Hmm, I don't know  

what I think about this." It wasn't disgusting  or anything, but I didn't think it was delicious  

at the same time. I felt like it was just a  neutral food that had no real special flavor,  

and it was just heavy and chewy. And I didn't  really understand its appeal. Well, flash forward  

over a decade, now I've been in Korea for a long  time, and I absolutely love tteok. I think it's  

delicious. I understand it now. Something clicked  and I was excited to go to the cafe. And they  

had many different kinds of tteok there that you  could buy individually. They came in these pretty  

little rice-cake balls, and there were different  combinations. Inside the rice cake was sometimes  

fruit and sometimes bean. That is a common filling  that is stuffed inside of rice cake here is kind  

of sweet bean filling called pat. And yeah, we  chose two different kinds of rice cake because A)  

we had just had lunch, so we weren't super hungry.  B) they were quite expensive for one little rice  

cake. It was a little bit expensive. And C) we  also ordered a Korean summertime favorite dessert  

called pat-bingsu, which is... bingsu is like ice  flakes, I suppose. Ice flakes. And pat is the red  

bean, sweet red bean that I told you about before.  So, we had ordered one of those as well, and we  

had a nice little coffee time. I believe the rice  cake flavors that we ordered were fig and... I  

can't remember. Ah! Ssuk. Ssuk. Which... what is  Ssuk in English? I think it's called mugwort in  

English. I think it grows wild. I'm not an expert  about this. Obviously, you can hear in my voice.  

But I believe it is a plant that grows, like,  in the forest. It's not really farmed. I think  

it's a wild herb, almost. And it's got a very  mellow taste. It's not a super strong taste,  

but it's just very mellow. I think that is the  word that I could use to describe it. And again,  

that's like a Korean flavor that I didn't  really know about or understand when I first  

came to this country. And now I'm like, I think  I was the one that ordered that flavor because  

I thought that sounded the best out of all the  different options. It's not as sweet, you know,  

like a fruit flavor can be quite sweet. There was  strawberry and some different kinds of berry ones,  

and those seemed too sweet to me. So, I went with  the mugwort. And it was really interesting the  

way that the rice cake came out and was served to  us. It's like a round little ball, right? And they  

gave us this little envelope of string. It looked  almost like dental floss. And the idea is because  

Korea is a country where almost everybody shares  their food. If you go to a cafe with your friend  

and you order a piece of cake, it would be really,  really strange for just one friend to eat the cake  

and not offer to share with the other friend.  Korea is a really communal country in that way.  

And people share the food that they order. And so,  these rice-cake balls are supposed to be shared  

because it would be weird just not to share them  with each other. And I think many customers at the  

cafe would mix and match and order many different  flavors. And then the problem is, how do you like,  

share this rice ball if you use it's very pretty.  And I'll upload some photos to our Instagram or if  

you're watching on YouTube, I'll put some visuals  behind me so you can see what they look like.  

They're very delicate, very beautiful rice-cake  balls. But if you were to just cut into them with  

a knife and fork, then they'd get squished, and  they wouldn't be beautiful anymore. And the whole  

visual aspect of the presentation would just be  wasted. So, what they do is they give you this  

like dental floss string. And I was a little bit  confused, like, is this for after we eat them? Are  

we supposed to floss our teeth afterwards? But  what you do is you wrap the string around the  

rice cake ball, and then you pull, and it cuts it  perfectly in half without ruining the integrity of  

the shape. So, it still maintains its beautiful  form. So, I thought that was a cool experience.  

And I enjoyed hanging out at that cafe for  a little while. As I said, that day was so,  

so hot. In fact, this whole last week in Korea  has just been insanely hot. Every day has been  

into the... I don't know, I think the other  day was 34 degrees. I heard in some places it  

was 35 degrees. So really hot. Thankfully, in my  opinion, it's not too humid yet here in Seoul. So,  

I can deal with heat, but the humidity is the real  killer for me. But it hasn't been too too humid.  

But it was a really hot day that day that we were  out and about downtown. So just to hang out in the  

cafe to enjoy a nice Korean-style dessert. And  this cafe had a nice window where we could look  

out and out the windows and just look at the city.  So, it was cool place to hang out for a bit. But  

that wasn't our main goal. Our main goal was to  check out City Hall and to do some reading. So,  

we walked over to City Hall when we are finished  at the cafe, and we found where the reading area  

was set up. And there were many, many, many of  these beanbag sofas set up all through the square  

in front of City Hall. But there were no people  there or very, very few people. There were some,  

but not very many at all. Just like a handful  of people there. And can you guess the reason  

why there weren't so many people there? It goes  back to the weather, like I just said, it was  

so hot that day in the 30s at least. And the sun  was beating down just like right down on top of  

us. And so, I wanted to like, at least give it a  try. So, I sat down on one of the sofas, but even  

just sitting down on it was really hot because the  fabric that the sofa was made out of was like kind  

of a plastic, like almost like a tarp, vinyl tarp  kind of material. You can imagine that it has to  

be waterproof, right? In case it rains. So that  kind of plasticky material gets really, really  

hot in the sun. And so even just sitting down on  the sofa was not very pleasant because it's like,  

you know, if you've ever sat on a leather sofa in  the hot weather and the leather gets hot and then  

you try and stand up and your skin kind of sticks  to the sofa, it was that kind of feeling. So,  

I did sit down and read a couple of pages and my  wife tried as well. But she was like, "This is  

not going to work. It's way too hot. We got to get  out of the sun. We're going to die out here." So,  

we thought, "OK, let's go into the old City  Hall building and we'll check out the library."  

I thought the library would be closed because we  were there on a Sunday, but the library was open,  

and we went inside to check out the library.  Interestingly enough, I had never been to that  

branch of the library. And when I was walking up  the stairs to get into the old City Hall building,  

suddenly I got excited because not too long ago,  a few months ago now, I suppose, but not too, too  

long ago, I visited Melbourne. And when I was in  Melbourne, I went to the Melbourne Library, and it  

was just an amazing experience. It was one of the  most fantastic libraries I've ever been to in my  

life. So beautiful and so cool. Just an all-round  amazing experience, which I've talked about on  

Culips before. So, if you want to hear me talk  about that in more detail, you can go check out  

that old episode. But I had that same kind of vibe  while I was walking up the stairs to go inside  

the Seoul Library in City Hall. However, once I  got inside, I was a little bit disappointed. I  

mean, I guess I'm comparing it to one of the  best libraries in the whole world. So that's  

unfair of me, but it wasn't as spectacular as I  thought maybe it would be. So, I was a little bit  

disappointed with the Seoul Library to tell you  the truth. But I did go to the magazine section,  

and I was really impressed with the magazines.  I thought, "Oh, I have to come back here to this  

library again to check out the magazines in the  future." Because it was so hot outside, my wife  

and I hung out in the magazine section, and they  had like really cool magazines that I have never  

seen in Korea before. Magazines about cinema and  architecture and art and photography, these like  

niche topics, not like the kind of magazine that  you would just see maybe for sale in a convenience  

store or something like that, right? And so, I had  a blast just flipping through the magazines in the  

library, especially there were some really  cool architecture magazines. And, you know,  

my wife and I, listeners of Culips will know that  we bought an old house and renovated our old house  

about a year ago now. And so, we went through  this process of designing our home. And so that  

got me a little bit interested in home design and  architecture. And there were some really, really  

beautiful houses on display in this one magazine  I was reading. So that was a win for me. That was  

a plus. But after a little while, my wife said,  "We got to leave the library now." She wasn't as  

interested in the magazines perhaps as I was. So,  we went out into the main City Hall lobby area.  

And we noticed that on the fifth floor of the  building, it said something like the Skywalk, like  

the City Hall Skywalk. It was called something  like that. I may be incorrect with the name,  

but it was something similar to Skywalk. So, we  said, "Hey, why don't we go check that out?" So,  

we walked up the stairs to get to the fifth floor.  And we were so pleasantly surprised that you could  

just walk out onto the rooftop of City Hall, and  it was completely open to the public. And there  

was like practically nobody up there. I think not  very many people know that you can do this. And in  

fact, I had no idea that you could do this. But  it's like this beautifully landscaped garden up  

on the top of City Hall. And there's a beautiful  view, like 360-degree view of downtown Seoul. And  

you can see the Blue House and the old palace.  You can see Seoul Tower, one of the landmarks  

of Seoul. That's on Namsan, one of the landmarks  of Seoul. Another landmark of Seoul. So that was  

really cool, the view. So, we walked around on the  rooftop. But at this point of the day, my wife was  

starting to get that look like I'm exhausted. You  know when you look at somebody and it's just like,  

it's so hot outside, and we've been walking around  for a while. And I just looked at her and I was  

like, "You're getting pretty tired, right? Like,  do we need to go home?" But she didn't really want  

to go home. But at the same time, it was tough  to walk around in the heat. So, as we were just  

looking at the view from the rooftop, we noticed  that there was this... I don't know how to explain  

it in English. But let me try my best to. There  are these areas in Korea that are like platforms,  

almost like decks. They're about, I don't  know, less than half a meter off the ground,  

maybe like 50, 40, 50 centimeters off the ground.  And they're, they're quite big. They're like,  

several meters long, and they're made for sitting  on. So, Korea has this like long history of floor  

sitting culture, I think, and many Korean  people like sitting on the floor. And so,  

they have these kind of platforms, almost like  a deck that you can sit on outside. And maybe  

you could have a picnic up there, or you could  take a nap on one. I personally love them. I  

think they're really amazing. And so, we noticed  one of these, like, I'll just call them decks,  

OK, these deck tables. It's like a sitting table,  it's like a platform that you can sit on. So, we  

noticed one of these up there on the fifth floor  of the City Hall building, and it was covered with  

an umbrella, and there was a lot of shade on the  platform. And so, we took off our shoes, because  

you must take off your shoes when you go up on one  of these so that it can stay nice and clean. We  

took off our shoes and we just sat in the shade  on the platform. And then we both lied down and  

next thing you know, it... like 30 minutes passed  and I woke up because I completely fell asleep.  

It was so relaxing and quiet and calm there on the  rooftop of the building. And my wife, I think also  

took a nap. And so, yeah, 20, 30 minutes later, we  woke up and we were both like, "Whoa, how long did  

we sleep?" Like, "What time is it?" And we woke up  and that look of exhaustion in my wife's face was  

totally gone. She's like, "Oh, that power nap did  it! I'm feeling good again." And so, we decided  

to keep going on our adventure. So, we exited from  City Hall and as we were walking out of City Hall,  

we noticed that that reading area in front of  City Hall wasn't the only place the library had  

set up. There were other areas around the city  that were set up with chairs and facilities for  

doing some outside reading. And so, we noticed  that one was pretty close to the Cheonggyecheon,  

which... The Cheonggyecheon is this stream that  runs through the center of downtown Seoul and it's  

really great. As far as I know, back in the day,  it used to be a highway that ran through the city,  

but maybe in like the early 2000s, and I'm not  sure about my dates here, so Korean listeners,  

please correct me if I'm wrong, but around the  early 2000s, the highway was destroyed, and they  

renovated the area by taking this old stream. I  guess historically it was a stream that had run  

through the center of Seoul, but they renovated  it and refreshed it. And now it's like a landmark  

in the city. It's a place where many people go to  have a stroll and to just like when you're in it,  

it's kind of lower than street level. So, when  you're walking along the stream, you don't really  

feel like you're in the big city and it's just a  wonderful, beautiful area. I'll put some pictures  

on the Instagram and on the YouTube so you guys  can see, because I don't think my words are  

doing it justice. So, we noticed that there was a  reading area set up there as well. And to walk to  

the Cheonggyecheon from the City Hall is not very  far. It's only like a 10-minute or less walk. So,  

we walked over there, and we noticed that they  had all of these little chairs set up and reading  

areas set up. And best of all, they were set up  so that you could sit right beside the stream,  

and you could actually dunk your feet in the  stream and just enjoy the cool water of the stream  

while reading your book at the same time. And  there were like umbrellas set up to block you from  

the stream*. And some people were sitting under  one of the bridges that crosses over the stream to  

get some shade. And anyways, by this time in the  afternoon, it was getting close to like 4:30-5:00.  

So, although it was still hot, the sun wasn't as  strong. So, we were like, "This is perfect! This  

is much better than the City Hall place." And  so, they had these, they didn't have the sofas,  

the beanbag sofas, like in front of City Hall.  They just had these chair backs, essentially,  

that were made out of Styrofoam. So, you could  sit on one of these chairs, you just put it on the  

floor. The chair had no legs, but the way that the  Cheonggyecheon is set up is it's tiered. So, you  

can just think of like a stadium where you would  watch sports and they have different tiers where  

you can sit, right? Almost like gigantic steps.  And so, the shore of the stream is tiered, and  

we put our chair back on the lowest tier. And so  that means that we could sit on one of the steps  

and then put our feet in the water. And we must've  hung out there for over an hour. We both brought  

our books with us, and I finished up reading "The  Three-Body Problem." I think I mentioned watching  

the Netflix series. And after I finished watching  the Netflix series, I wanted to read the book. So,  

I ran out and I grabbed the book. Finally, I  finished the book. I have to say my review, now  

that I've read both the book and seen the TV show,  the book is better, as always. Why is it always  

the case? It's almost always the case that the  book is better, right? Than the movie or than the  

TV show. But yeah, anyways, I read my book there  and just enjoyed a lovely afternoon in the sun  

with my feet in the water, staying cool that way.  And my wife was reading her book too. I actually  

have no idea what book she was reading, but I'm  sure it was a good one. So, it was just a great  

way to spend the afternoon and stay cool at the  same time and do some reading at the same time.  

And if you live in Seoul or you're planning to  visit Seoul sometime in the future, then I highly  

recommend bringing a book with you and checking  out one of these reading zones that you can find  

in front of City Hall or by the Cheonggyecheon  or there are some other ones as well throughout  

Seoul, because I think it's just a cool initiative  to encourage people to spend some time outside and  

to do some reading as well. So, everyone, I  think that will bring me to the end of this  

week's story, all about my special date day with  my beautiful wife on Sunday, doing some reading  

outside. Because you've made it to the end of this  episode, I should give you this week's completion  

code. So, let's make the completion code for this  episode: "Outside." Outside, O-U-T-S-I-D-E. So,  

if you leave a comment with the word "Outside" or  an example sentence using the word "Outside" on  

one of our social media areas, like on Instagram  or Discord or on YouTube, then I will know, and  

you will signal to other Culips listeners as well  that you made it to the end of this episode. So,  

everyone, please take care this week. If you have  any questions or comments about this episode, let  

me know. You can contact me on our Discord server,  and we'll leave a link in the description for this  

episode so you can easily join our Discord server.  If you haven't joined us there yet, what are you  

waiting for? Come on over to our Discord. It's an  awesome place. I hang out there every day and many  

members of our community do as well. So, it's just  a really cool place where you can hang out with  

other Culips listeners, practice your English,  and make some new friends as well. So come on  

over and join us on the Discord. OK, everybody,  that's it for me for this week. Please take care.  

Happy English studying up ahead. And I hope to  see you in our small-group conversation class  

this week. But if I don't, then I'll talk to you  on the next Culips episode. Until then, bye-bye.

Key Vocabulary

Vocabulary	Meanings
fluency ˈfluːənsi B2	noun - the ability to speak or write a language smoothly and easily
modesty ˈmɒdəsti B1	noun - the quality of being unassuming or moderate in the estimation of one's abilities
initiative ɪˈnɪʃətɪv B2	noun - a plan or action to achieve a particular goal
adventurous ədˈventʃərəs B1	adjective - willing to take risks or to try new methods
exciting ɪkˈsaɪtɪŋ A2	adjective - causing great enthusiasm and eagerness
explore ɪkˈsplɔːr A2	verb - to travel through or into an unfamiliar area to learn about it
routine ruːˈtiːn A2	noun - a sequence of actions regularly followed
chewy ˈtʃuːi A2	adjective - requiring much chewing before it can be swallowed
mellow ˈmɛləʊ B1	adjective - soft and rich in flavor
communal kəˈmjuːnəl B1	adjective - belonging to or used by all members of a group
integrity ɪnˈtɛɡrɪti B2	noun - the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles
landmark ˈlændmɑːk B1	noun - an object or feature that is easily seen and recognized from a distance
renovate ˈrɛnəveɪt B2	verb - to restore to a good state of repair
spectacular spɛkˈtækjulər B2	adjective - impressive and striking
niche nɪtʃ B2	noun - a specialized segment of the market

Key Grammar Structures

• And I hope that by listening to these stories, you will be able to B.I.G.B.

  ➔ Infinitive of purpose (to + base verb) expressing the reason for listening.

  ➔ The phrase 'to B.I.G.B.' functions as the purpose of 'listening to these stories'. It explains *why* the listener should engage with the content – to achieve the goals represented by the acronym.

• So, if those are your goals with your English studies, then you're in the right place.

  ➔ Conditional sentence (First Conditional) - If + present simple, will + base verb.

  ➔ This sentence uses a first conditional to express a likely outcome. **If** your goals align with the stated benefits, **then** you will find this podcast helpful.

• And I think you will enjoy this series very, very much.

  ➔ Future with 'think' - expressing a prediction or belief about the future.

  ➔ The use of 'think' softens the prediction, making it less assertive than a simple 'will'. The repetition of **'very'** intensifies the degree of enjoyment.

• This week, we will be talking about digital modesty, the topic of digital modesty.

  ➔ Future continuous (will be + -ing verb) - indicating an ongoing action in the future.

  ➔ The repetition of **'the topic of digital modesty'** emphasizes the central theme of the conversation. The future continuous indicates that the discussion *will be in progress* during the class.