#445 - Improve Your English Speaking with 5 Funny NEWS STORIES — Podcast for English Learners
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- All right guys, so today's lesson is gonna be a bit different and a lot of fun. I found four of the weirdest, funniest and news stories that I could get my hands on. And so me and my producers in the studio, we reacted to these clips and in the process, I analyzed all the useful vocabulary that I could see. And so by the end of this lesson, you have learned more than 30 words and expressions that you can use in everyday life with these funny news stories. Let's get into it.

Awww yeah, RealLifers, Global Citizens, this is Izzy from RealLife English, where it is our mission to guide you beyond the classroom to speak English confidently and naturally, to connect to the world and to actually use your English as a doorway to the life of your dreams. So I have with me here in the studio my producers who are going to be reacting to these funny news stories.

with me and I want to get started already with the very first one that I brought.

Let's watch it. Welcome back 454. Some foul mouthed parrots at a British zoo are in big trouble for swearing at guests. Five African gray parrots were donated. Now get this from separate owners, but they were donated to the Lincoln Shire Wildlife Park within the same week. Well, the birds had to be quarantined together. You know how parrots are. They start talking and soon they were cussing at each other.

Then they put him on display and they cussed at the visitors who then started swearing back at the parrots. Why would you? The zoo removed the parrots from public view, put them back in quarantine apparently so the children wouldn't hear all of it.

So the children, yeah, like the children wouldn't hear it from their... Okay, staff are hoping the birds' language will get more family-friendly now that they're separated. I have so many... Until they get back together again. I have so many questions. Oh my gosh. Right out of the gate, we see that there is a theme here of bad language, you could say, right? Or swearing. So in the beginning of the clip, let's check that out again.

There you go. So, foul-mouthed birds, foul-mouthed parrots. That's... Foul-mouthed is an adjective that you can use to describe somebody who uses a lot of swear words, right? Or curse words. Or bad words. These are all synonyms. Like the F word. Let me say it like a fuck. Like...

I know that these parrots, I read another story that they would tell the guests to fuck off. That's very rude. And that's one example of a bad word. They're going to quarantine you if you keep saying those words. Put you with the parrots. Exactly. So you could say also another adjective would be potty mouth. It's more informal. Right.

Maybe what a kid would say, that you have a potty mouth or have a mouth like a sailor. Why is that? Why a sailor? Yeah, because sailors have that reputation, I would say, right? Sailors are people who work on the sea in boats, ships. And there's a play on words here with the word foul, that foul language, which is like bad language,

It kind of plays on the word fowl, like F-O-W-L, which means birds. So fowl, language fowl. So what's also funny is that they put up a sign next to the birds to the parrot's cage in the zoo that I want to read it here. It's really funny storytelling. They really made a nice effort to...

to explain to people why they keep they're keeping these parrots there check it out so the title reads the infamous swearing parrots for your information every swear word can be heard in this aviary so please be aware if you have people with you of a sensitive nature so back in september 2020 a group of five african greys arrived at the park donated from various locations around the uk around the uk

There wasn't anything unusual in that, we thought, as we'd taken parrots all year round and African greys are by far the most common. However, while in the first stage of quarantine, our staff noticed something a little unusual. We were used to the odd parrot arriving with a few choice words in their vocabulary, but this was different. All five had their own repertoire

of blue language. And within a very short time, it sounded like an old man's working club in that room as they all let out variations of foul language, followed by laughs again by the parrots. So this is nice because we see more related language here, more related vocabulary to cursing, right? How about blue language? It's the same thing. Or old man's working club. So it's like I said earlier,

To have a mouth like a sailor, similar thing. I think it's just the reputation that an old man's working club would have. The infamous Ray and Parrot sounds like the name of a band. I mean, there are five...

- In the picture, there are five. - There are five, yeah, and they have names and everything. So anyway, the word infamous is also a nice one. So infamous is like when you're famous for something bad. It's like having a bad reputation and being famous for that, you are infamous. So anyway, let's move on to the next story here. All right, so for this one, you want to actually watch it. So if you're not on the real life app, you should go to the app right now because this clip does involve some funny drawings.

and it's much funnier if you see what's happening. So the link is in the description for you to go to this lesson on app right now. Now that this just in, police officers in Lancaster, Pennsylvania were asking people to be on the lookout for a man who robbed a store. And I think, yeah, I think we do have his description. Can we take that? Let's take his description. Okay, this is the guy they wanted people in Pennsylvania to be out on the lookout for. He's got...

He's got a nose and some hair that goes like that and he was wearing a hat at the time of this particular crime. He's got kind of a chin that comes down to almost a point. Stands about 5 feet 4 inches tall. There it is. Get a good look for yourself. Oh, and now I'm getting word that police actually caught this guy. Thanks to the sketch, no doubt.

So, here's a picture of the real guy next to the sketch that led to his arrest. Where's the pointy chin? It's uncanny, Lisa. The guy on the left is now charged with two counts of theft, is being held in the Lancaster jail, and I say give that sketch artist a raise. This wouldn't be so funny except it's a real sketch. That was actually the sketch the police sent out.

to the good folks in Lancaster. And, hey, to their credit, they came through.

Minus the hat. All right. So this news story opens with a classic line from news reporters that they say, this just in. Now this just in. Which means it's an announcement for breaking news. And then he says that there is a guy, a criminal, who people should be on the lookout for. And this means that people should be alert to this danger, you know, to this dangerous person. So to be on the lookout for something means that.

So then he goes on to describe the guy. He says that he's five feet, four inches tall, which is how they measure height in the United States, right? It's not meters or centimeters. It's feet and inches. So five feet, four inches. It's about maybe 165 centimeters, you know, 1.6 meters or so close to that. But it's really hard to translate that in your mind. Same thing with

kilograms versus pounds, right? They use pounds in the US. I think that's really confusing, right? Because I'm always looking for that on the internet. Like ounces is also another thing. Like I don't know how to measure. Yeah, ounces. So measurements and stuff like that. It's one of those things that's just hard to translate, right? Yeah. So I'm always like, I forget. You just said it is like what? Like one point something? Yeah.

So I always forget about that. That's why. Temperature. Yeah. There you go. Temperature. Yeah. Fahrenheit is like, I would say 25 degrees Celsius is a relatively warm temperature, right? Here in Brazil. But then what is that in Fahrenheit? It's like a 90 or something, right? But then if you go to zero Celsius, that's already 32 Fahrenheit. So it's very different the way they measure it.

Anyway, so the reporter, the anchor guy there, he says that he's getting word that the police actually caught this guy. So getting word is like he's hearing about it. He's getting the news, right? And then he says that there's a sketch. There's a drawing of the guy that the police got a hold of. And it's funny because, I mean, the guy looks... It looks like a kid drew it and...

Still, they caught the man. So he says it's uncanny. He talks to his co-host there and says, it's uncanny, Lisa. Meaning, it's strange, it's odd. It's uncanny, Lisa. And in the end, he says that the city's population, the folks there in this town in Pennsylvania came through. They succeeded in helping Lisa.

the police there they came through and hey to their credit they came through can you can you use uncanny to to say the the opposite as well like they they look so similar it's uncanny yeah i mean you can use uncanny for many situations if something is strange and almost creepy you know okay you fear how strange it is you can say it's uncanny like a coincidence that is so

like unexpected like how could that even be what are the odds it's uncanny right yeah i imagine the guy is saying like it looks like me but you drew me shorter no he's he's he's being sarcastic right yeah like too like oh it's uncanny

By the way, I want to pause this lesson for a brief moment here to tell you who is listening or watching me right now three important things. The first thing you probably noticed this lesson is structured in four parts, right? Each story we're covering one at a time and you should know that each one of these become their own micro lesson or a chapter

on the real life app. And it's much more convenient to learn with our lessons that way because you don't have to go through everything at once. Now, when you combine these with the second thing I want to tell you that our app saves all of these advanced expressions that I've been using so you can practice them later, have a smart practice system that helps you remember all these words forever. The whole experience becomes way more powerful. And finally, did you know that this lesson that you're watching or listening to right now is not the full version?

because that you can only get on the RealLife app. So what are you waiting for? The app is free to download. I'm going to leave the link in the description below so you can get started right now and start getting confident natural English fluency with us over there. Anyway, let's move on to the next piece of news that I got here. This one is about another animal. So we were another bird or fowl. This one is a peacock. Do you guys know what a peacock is? Peacock is like this...

yeah this flowery like bird that has like a big tail i think many colors right exactly it's kind of big and check out check check out this story this is an interesting item to carry on the plane yep that's a peacock

I'm not kidding, this woman is wrangling her peacock into the airport. Right now, wrangling a peacock in the airport. A woman wanted to bring it on her flight out of New Jersey as an emotional support bird. She even bought the peacock named Dexter its own seat.

United Airlines said in a statement, "This animal did not meet guidelines for a number of reasons including its weight and size. We explained this to the customer on three separate occasions before they arrived at the airport."

The peacock and its owner ended up driving to their destination. It's an emotional support peacock. Crazy is that. What is an... Like, I understand there is animals like dogs who... They definitely help, right? Blind people and everything. But an emotional support peacock is the... That's a first. So, the woman reacting, there was another person filming in the airport. She said that...

She can't believe, she couldn't believe this other person was wrangling a peacock at the airport. So wrangling, that's an interesting verb. It means like to guide animals, maybe like in a farm, especially if they're being like uncooperative. If they're not helping, you know, they need to be moved, you're wrangling them. Like you do with sheeps maybe, you know.

Is it like the same word as the brand of clothes? Wrangler? Is it really the same? With the W, like wrangle? Wrangler? Then yeah. So the airport said that they had already talked to this customer, to this passenger, and said that they explained that the bird, the peacock, did not meet the guidelines for a number of reasons, like taking them on the...

the bird on the plane. This animal did not meet guidelines. So the verb meet here is interesting because it's a more specific application of it. Like usually like you meet people, right? You meet a person, but you can also meet needs, meet guidelines, requirements, expectations, rules. It's kind of similar to comply, you know, or to follow, to satisfy rules. So they explain that

This doesn't meet the guidelines for taking pets. I can imagine why. Right. And it's crazy how animals usually make the best stories. I was reading other ones, other stories, and I found this other one from a guy in Florida that he actually used an alligator to rob a convenience store.

He used the alligator as a weapon. So let me read it here. It's a very short piece of news. So in Florida, a man attempted to rob a convenience store by bringing a live alligator with him as a weapon. According to police reports, the man walked into the store holding the alligator by the tail and demanded money.

The cashier was so stunned, she called the cops. The alligator, meanwhile, seemed more confused than threatening. The bizarre crime attempt quickly went viral with people dubbing it the most Florida thing ever. Yeah, Florida is popular for many alligators wandering around, right? And madness, crazy stuff going on as well. That makes sense. The funny thing is that the peacock looked really chill. Like he...

He seemed to be the emotional support pet of this woman, but they didn't understand the story. So I think that the fault is on the airline. And it was really important for her because she actually drove to where she wanted to go with a peacock. Yeah, he's just standing there and just waiting. It might as well be the emotional support, but I don't know.

People are accustomed to less flashy pets to have. All right, let's now move on to another one. This one involving another crime. And it also involves the world's chillest man. Check it out.

He's the guy who became a national sensation as the world's chillest man. Sometimes you just have to stand up to punks like that. Tony Tovar just nonchalantly sat there, lighting up his cigarette as his favorite neighborhood bar was robbed. So this is your bar, this is your home bar and you weren't gonna let anybody push you around in there.

That`s absolutely correct. Tovar looked cool as a cucumber as the other patrons at Biermann`s Bar in St. Louis followed the robbers` orders and hit the deck. He puts the barrel of that gun into your rib cage. What`s going through your mind? He was reaching for my phone at the same time, so it was going through my mind as, no, this is not going to happen.

The bar surveillance video shows the 57-year-old master mechanic grabbing his phone back after the bad guy tries to take it. The surveillance video is silent. Now Tovar is revealing what words were exchanged during his scary encounter. He actually asked me,

I need the money out of your wallet. I just said I got two dollars in my wallet and that's for my next beer. I actually told him hey since you're back there get me a beer. He looked at me and says no get your own beer. The world's chillest man. You guys know what that mean? Uh chillest? Yeah like he's really relaxed like he's not

anxious about what's happening maybe it's cool or cool as a cucumber i think that reporter said too and the word cool is nice because there's different phrases collocations that you can add more meaning or explain a certain behavior for example like to keep your cool so to keep your cool is when something could be disturbing you could be stressing you out but you are

or making that effort to remain calm so you're keeping your cool. You can also lose your cool, which is the opposite. Or you can play it cool. And in that situation, like internally, maybe you're feeling all the disturbance, but you're playing it cool. You're pretending, at least. So this guy who's the world's chillest man, he said in the beginning of that story that

Sometimes you just have to stand up to punks like that. Sometimes you just have to stand up to punks like that. So it's a very American thing to say, I guess, right? So if you stand up to someone, you are confronting them, you're facing that person or situation. So you're standing up. It's kind of figurative. And punks, well, a punk is not the musical word here, the music genre here.

It's actually when there's like a person who's like rebellious, that they are indisciplined, you know, they're rude or aggressive, disrespectful to the rules. So that's a punk. Tony, Tony Tovar, this guy, this customer, he's just nonchalantly sit there.

Nonchalant. That's another even another word to say the same thing like cool, you know, chill when you are appear relaxed. As the reporter said, he was he wouldn't let anybody pushing him around, you know, to treat to treat him disrespectfully, to treat him inconsiderably.

So let's watch the second part of this story. After taking money from other patrons, the robber forced the bartender to open the cash register. He took all the money, 200 bucks in total. All the while, Tovar just sits there taking it all in. His advice for anyone else who finds themselves in a similar situation, don't do what he did. If you don't want to get hurt and you're not sure, comply.

comply yeah there you go already looked at that right so like i meet the rules that comply comply follow the rules or follow what the the robber is telling you to do so yeah they're watching all of this through a surveillance camera which is surveillance by the way means uh when it's related to watching a place or a person right uh for security reasons or just to you know to to see what's what you're doing and

the robber, he forced the bartender to open the cash register. So a cash register is this place where this object where

You can store all the money, all the cash in a store, for example, or a bar in this case. Yeah, such a weird story. I remember being in situations of robbery or I've gotten mugged a few times in my life. Here in Brazil, some places are more dangerous than others. And I would never do something like this, but...

You know, this guy was courageous enough or crazy enough to do it. So anyway, I'm talking here with Humbert and T. They are our producers in these lessons. And Humbert is actually somebody who I've had some podcast conversations with months ago. And we recorded those. Do you remember those, Humbert? And we never really published them because I guess they were, I don't know if they were publishable material or not.

But there were really nice conversations about Lord of the Rings. Video games. Video games, exactly. Humbert actually got mentioned in another lesson that we did previously all about video games, learning English with video games. And now this is a time when people get to see you and meet you for the first time. So first of all, introduce yourself. Humbert, let me...

Let me just say that Humbert is one of our video producers here and he is responsible for most of the Learn English with TV lessons, the lessons with movies and series that you can watch on our app and also on YouTube. And Humbert, where are you from? I think that's a very good question to start with. Yeah, first of all, thank you for having me here. I'm always around.

All right, guys. So if you want to continue watching this lesson and get the full conversation between Humbert and I, you should head to the real life app right now. I'm going to leave the link in the description so you can click on that and get started right now. The link will take you straight to the app. And as I said before, the app gives you so much more than just

this additional part, which is already amazing, but we also give you vocabulary flashcards so you can practice all the expressions that we use in our lessons. We also give you chapters and micro lessons so you can learn in a much more convenient way. So click the link and I'll see you over there.