From the Archives: Pt. 2 of A Typically British Weekend

0:00Hello and welcome back to the British English Podcast, the show that helps you better understand British culture and exposes you to intermediate to advanced vocabulary of which is taught with extensive resources inside my academy or the premium podcast membership. Now we've been going for over six years now and with 250 plus episodes in the back catalogue, I wanted to bring one to the top of the pile and give you a rerun. This one is part two of a typical British weekend because about a month ago I re-released part one so if you listen to that then you'll be nicely primed for this one. If not and you'd like to listen to part one then just look for it in my recent published episodes. It'll be within the last five or so uploads. All right, enjoy. Hello, hello, hello, welcome back to the British English Podcast with your host Charlie Baxter. Today's episode is a bite-sized one meaning it's a shorter one so that you can complete it in one go.

1:06This episode comes with a free worksheet over on the website thebritishenglishpodcast.com So grab that and you can listen along whilst using it. So yeah, we've parked, we're happy we've found a spot and off I go to a good shoe shop in the UK which were and I think still are called office, sole trader and maybe JD sports. So if you're in the UK already living there and you're not sure where to buy your next pair of trainers head to one of those three and they will sort you out and I yeah I interact with a number of sales assistants during my purchase and sad to say only one of them actually had the decency to look me in the eye yeah the others they were probably chewing gum chatting to their colleagues or on their bloody phones and I think this is because the large majority of sales

2:09assistants are under the age of 25 maybe even younger 18 to 20 I remember I was 16 when I started working for a department store called House of Fraser and I was pretty awful at my job. Yeah, I could fold a t-shirt impeccably but did I know the history of Polo Ralph Lauren and when the next line of products were landing in stores no definitely not definitely not and I didn't care didn't care and it could be that the world is improving in all areas of business since then but my experience in other countries is that some staff are more friendly elsewhere, particularly America and Australia they're more knowledgeable and they seem to actually want to help you so I'm not sure what that is it's just my experience but I feel like you don't get great service in shops in the UK so if you feel like they're being rude to you it's not because you're not English it's because you're in England so I'd say expect poor service by an 18-year-old if

3:14you're going to a clothes store your little one grew three inches overnight adorable also expensive sell their pint-sized pieces on D-pop and list them in minutes with no selling fees because somewhere the dad refuses to pay full price for the clothes his kid will outgrow tomorrow and he's ready to buy your son's entire wardrobe right now consider your future growth bird budget secured start selling on D-pop where taste recognizes taste payment processing fees and boosting fees still apply see website for details nothing brings people together quite like team USA at the Olympic winner games from NBC Universal's iconic storytelling to the innovative technology across Xfinity and Peacock Comcast brings the Olympic Games home to America sharing every moment with millions when team USA steps on to the world stage people aren't just watching they're sharing together this winter everyone is all on the same team Comcast proud partner of

4:14team USA so yeah I've had the poor service but I've got my new shoes I'm a new man in a new year no I set this weekend in spring didn't I okay well whatever time of the year it is it's time to grab a pasty from Greg's Greg's is a bakery a chain across the UK that is cheap and cheerful it's very cheap and you get very tasty little pastries or pasties and so I get a Greg's I get a coffee from Costa or Pretta Monje and then I'll probably go and see my sister and mother they're probably in a shop like Monsoon and I tell my sister you don't need another scarf Holly let's go home and after getting home I pop around my auntie's house to see my grand and my auntie and then I realized that my grand died in 2011 no it was 2012 yeah she was still

5:17alive yeah yeah I say hello to my grand and auntie and I remember my grand you'd always say a lovely phrase when I say how are you it's my favorite response to a greeting that I've heard to this day which which was I'm all the better for seeing you my dear lovely lovely phrase very cute but I hope that doesn't make you think that I've got a little red riding hood capon nor that she has extra long canines no it's it's just Charlie and his granny B granny B granny backster that's my surname and yeah we'd call her granny B she had a lovely smile normal-sized canines and a lovely nature about her but yeah she passed away in 2012 passed away nice way to say to die so she passed away then but yeah I'd pop around and see her and my auntie that are just a walk away um 10 minutes down the road and then after probably having

6:20a cup of tea and a bicky a bicky means a biscuit um like a short bread biscuit or a digestive biscuit those are the most common ones that I would have with them I would walk home via the off license in my village so an off license is a small shop that looks a bit like a news agent but it just sells alcohol nowadays small supermarkets sell a good variety of alcohol in the UK so people don't really need to go to an off license as much as they used to which contrasts with Australia as they have peculiar alcohol licensing laws which are pretty hard to get so nearly all supermarkets can't sell alcohol in Australia and therefore the off license or as they call it here a bottle shop or even a bottle of if you're a bit bogan or or live in the countryside or outback or maybe a bushy um yeah it's a necessity to have a bottle shop on the high street in Australia

7:28less so nowadays in England you can go to your local supermarket so yeah I grab four cans of beer from the off license and I should say most of my friends would grab a crate in this situation but I'm what one calls a lightweight a lightweight yes this means somebody who is able to get drunk quite quickly or you don't need much alcohol to get the job done but yeah friends would just call a lightweight a pussy you can't handle your drink you're a pussy so I'm not grabbing these um four cans to depressingly glug alone uh because I'm going round a friend's house as their parents are out for the evening and this brings me on to a cultural norm in the UK uh it was it was the best option for for teenagers um when the parents would leave for the evening or they would go out and they would it would be called a free house oh I've got a free house guys do you want to come round so you'd invite about 15 friends over you'd get drunk

8:34and someone would inevitably break something in the house you'd get a bit stressed uh the parents would come home and then everyone would um scarper scarper means run away run away but as this weekend that I'm talking about is set in my early twenties we're above that now we're not clumsily breaking things we bring beer some wood smoke we chill out have a chat and maybe watch a film that's that's the kind of thing we do at that age graduates we're mature sure uh but I I want to also say not everyone went to university um in my local area I felt like it was in my friendship group it was probably about 80 percent of us went but um I think in the UK the national average is about 30 to 40 percent that um do a degree and then um the others that don't go to university they would have either started work at 16 or 17 or they would have gone to a college

9:36and done two more years of education and then um gone into into work around yeah 18 to 20 years old now I did mention that some would smoke which is a bit needless I wouldn't really say this if it weren't for a reason um and I want to point out that smoking cigarettes was still pretty common for my generation at that age I was born in 1990 and I think a handful of my friends to this day still smoke um in the UK and it was kind of regarded as cool at university um it might be just a cultural thing at university it's a bit more of a thing to do but yeah since the smoking ban that came out in 2007 many you can't smoke in pubs um it's been on a decline definitely the amount of people that have been picking up the habit the reason I say that is because when I went to America and then Germany um America not many people smoke it it's a very different um feeling

10:39about it it almost felt like a dirty habit it certainly didn't feel cool and um yeah it was it was almost socially unacceptable and that was in 2015 I heard that um America um once they caught on to how bad it was for your health America marketed cigarettes in a very negative light and and they did really well from that and and it made the mainstream kick the habit um pretty quickly over there um and then it was an even bigger shock going to central Europe in in Germany because they openly advertise smoking like on the billboards you have three people enjoying their time maybe in a car and they've got a cigarette in their hand and the advert is for a brand of cigarettes and that in the UK it's unheard of you wouldn't be able to see that I think laws have been passed where you can't advertise um smoking directly and even in the shops you'll you'll notice if you go to the UK the shops have all the cigarette packets um hidden behind the counter they used to be

11:44able to advertise it visually and the packets used to be really colorful and interesting but now there's a law that has um removed any interesting kind of um graphics but yeah so smoking um is a little bit more common in the UK um in Australia it's a bit of a um a fitness and health culture so yeah again less smoking here the biggest addiction here is coffee but yeah the main point I wanted to make here was um in America it felt like a dirty habit whereas in Europe it's it's more socially acceptable to still smoke yeah so I've um imagine I've I've chilled I've chilled out with my friends for the evening uh the guys occasionally discuss the football or rugby maybe and then the girls might talk about uh ex-factor or Britain's got talent I hope that's not too offensive if if any of my friends listen to this yeah those those are the typical areas of conversation we obviously talk about anything and everything but um yeah those might be some go-to topics so if I was a

12:48non-native I would watch some sports and reality TV in the UK to have something to talk about with um native speakers score more with the college branded Venmo debit card and earn up to 5% cash back with Venmo stash got paid back with the Venmo debit card you can instantly access your balance and spend on what you want like game day snacks gear tickets and more the more you do the more cash back you can earn plus there's no monthly fear minimum balance sign up now at vemo.com slash college card the Venmo master card is issued by the bank court bank NA select schools available Venmo stash terms and exclusions apply at Venmo.me slash stash terms max $100 cash back per month my day kicks off with a refreshing Celsius energy drink then straight to the gym pre-get pickup back home to meal prep time for my fire session shift one more Celsius gotta keep the lights on when the three alarm hits I'm ready Celsius live fit go grab a cold refreshing Celsius at your local retailer or locate now at Celsius.com to recap this um uneventful boring British weekend

14:00uh let's remind you shall we so uh I took a walk through London after finishing my week of work um up near the houses of parliament and then I had some drinks with some friends and then I got the overground train back home to uh Surrey which is about an hour southwest of London the next day I went into town to do some shopping and uh and by town here I'm meaning the local town but this has made me think of a colloquial phrase that southerners use which is to go up to town or to be up in town and that means London even though it's one of the most famous capital cities in the world it's simply known as town in this context and I say it to phrase for southerners as if you were from north of London it doesn't seem right to say to go down to town maybe they say going into town

15:02however my suspicion is that because they have plenty of big cities around them it might not be so clear which town or city you're meaning whereas if you live south of London then the next big city might even be Paris I'm just joking just joking we wouldn't dare bring the French into this so unnecessarily would we but yes if you if you live in that neck of the woods then you can say I'm popping up to town or maybe um where's Jim oh he's still up in town and we all know that means London especially if Jim is a city wanker I mean banker banker pardon the slip of the tongue where was I oh yes shopping in my local town uh then I popped over to see my auntie and uh my grandmother who hadn't popped her clogs yet uh then onto her friends for some casual drinks to enjoy their freehouse and then Sunday here we are the day of rest but uh the million dollar

16:07question of course that I know you're dying to find out is did I indeed do as god wanted me to did I go to church and spend the day with the family well I'll let you be the judge of that come on let's finish this bite-sized trilogy once and for all so then the evening comes to a close I go back home and um the Sunday starts and this is actually the the most pompous part of the weekend for me uh because I'm about to play a round of golf with my dad yeah that's right a round of golf um he got me into it at a young age and he's been addicted to it ever since and to confirm it's a bit of an old man's game for as long as I can remember um people have thought about it as a posh older man's sport uh but things are changing a little bit I'm playing it in Australia and it seems like it's really common now like lots

17:12of young people around the age of um late 20s 30s onwards are playing it and it's becoming more accessible and less elitist now which um it's really nice and it makes it more enjoyable and you have a drink after and stuff but yeah for me and my dad we play the round and then we go into the clubhouse and we have a pint of larga or pint of ale um you know to congratulate ourselves on walking around a field for four hours hitting a small ball with sticks and then we might watch whatever sport is on in the clubhouse usually a football game my dad makes the occasional comment pretending he knows what's going on in the premier league I don't I I'm an anomaly most people do know what's going on with football but uh I haven't the foggiest idea I don't have a clue we're just going to take a quick break um from the deer diary this is what I did on my weekend

18:13kind of episode and uh just remind you that there is a free worksheet available for you to listen along with to help better understand the expressions that I'm using in this episode so head over to the website link in the show notes or go to the British English podcast.com I also do transcripts and extended glossaries for premium or academy members so check out that if that interests you but certainly grab the free worksheet from the British English podcast.com and continue enjoying the show yeah then we head home and because this weekend is made up I'm uh I'm going to go for another walk yes I'm going to go for a walk with a best friend from uni who lives nearby so I drive over her way and we grab a coffee and we go for a walk along the canals and that's

19:13a nice option for quite a few locations in the UK we have nice parks that have some canals going through them so thin man-made rivers and you see these long canal boats going up and down them using the locks which I used to always find fascinating as a kid and I still kind of do whenever I see them I'm like oh they're using the lock a lock is um a man-made sort of gate that pressurises the water and it allows for a canal boat to go uphill I guess that's the reason for the change in water levels I believe so yeah um it's a really nice place to go for a walk along a canal I highly recommend it grab a coffee find a canal and you'll you'll be British in no time and I'm walking side by side with a friend from uni who is a female now I am very comfortable

20:16having female friends I am straight I do have a girlfriend I promise but um I am a brother to two sisters and therefore I find it normal to spend time with the opposite sex typically in the UK guys spend more time with guys and and the girls spend more time with the girls in groups we mix and there's absolutely no gender divide at all in this in that kind of situation but if a guy and a girl spend time together one-on-one people will jokingly suggest that they are into each other to be into somebody to like somebody that they like each other romantically which is definitely not always the case you can very easily have a a friend that is the opposite sex but I wanted to state it as I know that many of my students cultures wouldn't even think about having a friendship with the opposite sex um I even remember some of my Russian students and friends even felt guilty

21:17hugging me when I went to see them in Russia as Russian men are quite protective and and even some of my Russian male students have admitted this to me so I feel like I could say that so they're quite protective in comparison to what I am used to so I wouldn't say British people are particularly jealous or protective in this way when we greet we kiss and hug and and spend good quality time together as a group but yeah if it's one-on-one people might start to raise an eyebrow but nothing more than that could quite easily dismiss it so to be a two has come home to Disney plus let's go get ready for a new case for the greatest partners of all time new friends do it this night and your last name this night dream team new habitats who to be has a secret reptile population you can watch the record breaking phenomenon at home so to be a two now available on Disney plus rated PG here right now you can get Disney plus and hulu for just 499 a month for three months with a special limited time offer ends March 24 after three months plan auto renews at 1299 a month terms apply

22:19planning a wedding shouldn't feel overwhelming the knot brings everything together in one place vendors who get your vibe a custom planning checklist guest list tools and a free wedding website that sinks with it all so instead of juggling a dozen apps and spreadsheets you can actually enjoy getting married get started at the knot dot com slash audio the knot let's plan your wedding together so i've had my walk and catch up with my uni friend i go home to hear that my mom has has maybe gone over to see my grandfather and so my dad is in charge of cooking um actually at that age i sometimes cooked obviously but yeah usually when it's just me and him it means only one thing and that is that we are going to the local curry house to pick up a takeaway and then watch something like James Bond and then i'll fall asleep on the sofa lovely lovely weekend so yeah that's the end of it so i started off in London enjoyed the nice evening had some drinks

23:24with some friends in a bar cocktail bar took the train home went shopping the next day in town saw some extended family went for a few drinks with some friends at somebody's house for a chilled night came back played some golf the next day if i wasn't playing golf i would either play a football cricket or maybe even go and watch some football or rugby but yeah my dad he got me into posher sports at a younger age and um as my friends would say i'm a bit of a pussy so i i can't really play rugby and i liked football but i didn't i didn't play it after the age of 16 and then i had a curry to end the night very british thing i'd say that's a really british weekend obviously it depends on your age your location in the country your other demographics but i'll come back soon and give you a typical weekend of people from different locations maybe

24:28i'll interview people and and get them to give me their experience as well um but hopefully that gives you an insight into what it's like to um to be a Brit and um yeah what people get up to on the weekend obviously just my experience but um i'm sure quite a few other people would do something similar um with a few tweaks here and there i just want to say that was the eight that was me at the age of like 22 and um i was i was single-ish at that time um and just starting out in the real world getting a taster of an office job up in the city but if you know me and what my life has been like in the last eight or nine years then we know it didn't continue in this fashion for long but that's a tale for another time i hope you enjoyed getting an insight into what a typical weekend was like for me in my early 20s in the UK i'll be back with a follow-up episode when the time is right to mention how um abnormal or normal this type of weekend is for a typical

25:31Brit what do you think does it sound boring sounds pretty boring to me but yeah that's an average weekend can't be telling you um i'm going to a festival every day because that wasn't true uh let me know your thoughts i'm available on instagram at the british english podcast and of course don't forget your free worksheet for this episode explaining some of the really useful expressions i used which you can get by going to the podcast website called the british english podcast.com and if you like learning through these podcasts then i have a huge amount of learning resources available for you um if you join the premium podcast or the academy so check those out you can try the samples for both of those for free get a feeling of what they're like and then um if it's if it's for you if it's um something that you feel like is is worthwhile for you and will improve your studies which i really do believe then um yeah you can join in and get all of the amazing amount of resources that i have for every single episode that's it from me my name's Charlie Baxter

26:35hope you enjoyed this show see you next time on the british english podcast never seen a musical so good you didn't want it to end like you could live inside it forever then you're going to love shmigadoon get your one-way ticket to Broadway musical paradise have you ever felt trapped at a musical like you literally couldn't escape then you'll hate to miss shmigadoon because you'll never want to leave and you can't but the important thing is because you'll never want to. Get tickets at www.schmigidunbroadway.com