Practice Your English Talking
With the Internet, social media and dating apps on you phone it’s never been easier to find and talk to people online. The problems start when you meet in the real world, the rules for dating are always changing and dating using a new language will be harder than using your native language. So today we practice our English language listening and talk about the dating scene in Britain.
It does not matter where you live there are just some things you cannot do on a first date and expect a second date. This lesson will help you understand some do and some do not things to do when meeting up with a prospective date for the first time.
Everybody knows the pressure of a first date: Searching for that perfect outfit. Hunting for ways to be engaging. Dissecting each detail when it's over to check for mistakes. Dating can make even the most confident person lose his cool.
⭐ Kelly Starling
Although you might not need to be dating or just don’t care about the British dating scene, don’t forget that this English lesson is full of useful insights into British culture, all English-speaking language countries cultures. The lesson also takes time to explain key vocabulary and provides a lot of great everyday English language conversational listening.
So even if the topic is not exactly what you are looking for, it’s still worth listening to practice your English listening build you English vocabulary and expand your understanding of how us British think about things. We have over 270 other quality English audio lessons you can choose from right now so you will definitely find something that you fancy listening too.
Most Unusual Words:
Cuddly
Websites
Offputting
Most common 2 word phrases:
| Phrase | Count |
|---|---|
| Off-Putting | 5 |
| You Might | 5 |
| In English | 5 |
| The Person | 4 |
| Put Off | 4 |
Listen To The Audio Lesson Now
The mp3 audio and pdf transcript for this lesson is now part of the Adept English back catalogue . You can still download and listen to this lesson as part of one of our podcast bundles.
Transcript: Practice Your English - Talking About Britains Biggest Dating Turn Offs
Hi there and welcome to this short podcast from Adept English. Talking in English becomes possible when you listen to lots of talking in English. And about things which are of interest to you, then you can forget that actually this is an English lesson. So we’ve been working hard with grammar a lot lately. How about we do one of those more fun English conversation lessons today?
Dating, Blind Dating and Blind Tasting
So something I noticed which amused me this week, which was to do with dating. The verb ‘to date’ in English speaking countries means when you meet up with people with a view to romance. You might ask that woman in the office who you like on a date – and meet up with her in the evening for a few drinks at your local bar. Or with the popularity of online dating, you might have signed up for one of the websites. In the UK, a popular one is called ‘Plenty of Fish’. This name comes from the phrase in English ‘There are plenty of fish in the sea’ meaning ‘Don’t be worried if this one relationship doesn’t work out. There are plenty of other people to date’, ‘plenty of fish in the sea’. The other sort of date which sometimes happens is called ‘a blind date’.
Listening To News In English Video
The word ‘blind’, B-L-I-N-D means ‘without sight, without seeing’. So this word could be used of someone who can’t see at all, their eyes don’t function, they have a disability because they can’t see. But the word ‘blind’ is also used say of things like tasting. ‘To taste’, T-A-S-T-E usually means that you put something into your mouth to try. You might go to a wine tasting for example. So a ‘blind tasting’ would mean that you taste something without seeing what it is, or at least without seeing the label. So that your judgement, what you think – will depend entirely on your experience of taste. So a ‘blind date’ means that you haven’t met the person, you don’t know a lot about them and you don’t know what they look like. Sometimes friends ‘set you up’ with someone whom they think you will like. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t! But dating is what you might do, if you’re looking for a relationship, a partner perhaps, a boyfriend or girlfriend.
Dating Survey
So what did I read this week about dating? Well, apparently there was a survey. And a ‘survey’, S-U-R-V-E-Y is when people answer a set of questions and it gives a result, which indicates generally what people’s opinions are. So the survey asked ‘What are the most off-putting things you might see, when you go back to someone’s place – where they live – for the first time?’ What sorts of things put you off? ‘Put you off’ - that means change your opinion, changes your opinion about the person you’re on the date with, making it more negative. Another example of this modal verb, ‘to put off’ – if you noticed a fly in your soup, a dead fly that is, that would ‘put you off’ your soup. So what sort of things put people off the person they’re dating? An organisation in the UK called Perfect Home asked 2000 people for answers.
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A photo of dating couple who are flirting together. An article image for practice your English talking.
So just before we go into that, just a word about Adept English. Talking podcasts is what we do, but if you would like more help in understanding the theory of how to learn English speaking, or any other language, through our ‘listen and learn’ method, then sign up for our FREE English language course, the Seven Rules of Adept English. There’s no such thing as ‘Speak English in 30 days’ as many websites may claim – that’s just not possible! But in this course, you will learn the secrets of learning a language, how to speak English easily or at least more easily, so that you can actually understand and speak the language, rather than just being able to pass exams in it! That’s a big claim – but go and check out our course, The Seven Rules of Adept English . You’ll find it really helpful. Oh – and did I say? This course is free! You just need to sign up to receive it – and it includes video too!
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What Puts Your Date Off!
So back to our topic on dating. And what puts people off their date, when they go back to their place. So for either men or women, one of the biggest put-off factors was the presence of any naked pictures on the walls. ‘Naked’ N-A-K-E-D means nude, ‘not wearing clothes’ and a high percentage of people asked said ‘This is not OK’. In fact, people dating, didn’t want to see posters of any kinds on the walls of their prospective partners. Perhaps posters, P-O-S-T-E-R-S, posters are too close to how a person’s bedroom might have looked when they were a teenager! What people also found off-putting, what they didn’t like was placards or pictures with advice, words like ‘Live – Laugh – Love’ or ‘Home Sweet Home’, or maybe just ‘Love’ or ‘Home’.
These Are Some Of The Biggest First Date Turn Offs Video
I don’t know anyone who has these, but you do see them in shops in the UK! Another thing which was seen as off-putting for most people – any teddy bears or dolls or what we call in English ‘cuddly toys’. Cuddly toys are the soft toys, in the form of rabbits or dogs or bears, things that little children like. If you’re an adult – having cuddly toys in your place is very off-puting indeed to someone you’re dating. And even more so, if there are a lot of them, all looking at you! It could even be quite scary! What does it mean about the person that you’re dating?!
Download The Podcast Audio & Transcript
Clean Your Room!
Now if you go on a date, the likelihood is that you’ll have showered, put on clean, nice clothes, had a shave maybe, done your hair, put on your make-up perhaps. You make sure that you look your best. But apparently this isn’t always reflected in people’s homes. So if you invite your date back to where you live for the first time, cleanliness – that means the state of being clean – is really important. So especially for women, but also for men, a dirty or a messy room is a massive off-putting factor. In particular, dirty plates, dirty dishes lying around – evidence that the washing up hasn’t been done for a bit – these are massive off-putting factors. Clothes all over the floor – not good. Every thing covered in dust – not nice. And the biggest offputting factor – any suggestion of dirty sheets, dirty bedding not washed – or any evidence of the place having a smell, not smelling very nice! That’s the absolute worst put off.
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A photo of dating couple who are flurting together. An article image for practice your English talking.
So if you’re in the habit of dating, you have been warned! These are the things which will put off someone who could be a prospective partner! So useful information I hope! Bear ths in mind when you go dating.
Goodbye
If you would like to read the original article, which inspired this podcast, working of course on the kind of English we speak, then go to the transcript on our website at adeptenglish.com and you’ll find a link at the bottom of the page.
So there’s our English talking short podcast for this week. Enough for now. Have a lovely day. Speak to you again soon. Goodbye.
Britain's Biggest Bedroom Decor Turn-offs
PS: Can you write in English well, but don’t feel confident about speaking English?
A lot of English language students who discover Adept English online come to us with good English reading and writing skills. The problem that they and so many students have is speaking the English language fluently, like you would need for a job or to socialise and hold normal conversations is not really taught at schools or through traditional English courses.
We focus our listen and learn English lessons on the speaking and listening part of English. We work with our students to be much better at listening to and understanding spoken English first with no books, reading or writing.
Using the Adept English learning system and repeat listening we would expect a student listening to this lesson to understand 80% or more of the words listened to with no need to look up words. Using listen and learn, our system of learning to speak English, you will find talking in English easier, more fluent and your confidence will be much higher.
And if you’ve listened to this English lesson and understand it and are saying, err I’ve got posters on my wall, I haven’t done the dishes in days, I’ve got dirty clothes on the floor and you want to date new people, you're in trouble!
