Introduction
Neil and Beth have a real conversation in easy English about watching TV. Learn to talk about what you watch on TV and why you enjoy it.
Vocabulary
binge-watch
watch lots of episodes of a TV show in a row
reality TV
programmes about real people rather than with actors
obsessed
unable to stop thinking about something
Transcript
Beth
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I’m Beth.
Neil
And I’m Neil. Go to our website to find a script for this episode to read along with the podcast. bbclearningenglish.com.
Beth
Hi, Neil. How’re you doing.
Neil
I’m very well, Beth. How are you?
Beth
I’m good, thank you. I’ve been watching Race Across the World.
Neil
TV! Do you like watching TV?
Beth
It depends. If I really like a show, then yes.
Today we’re talking all about television. We’ll talk about some of the shows we watch and why we like them. So, Neil, do you watch a lot of television?
Neil
No actually, I don’t. I think probably I spend more time thinking about what to watch on television than watching because there’s so much choice. But I do like to watch things like live sport on TV.
Beth
OK, that’s good.
Neil
How about you, Beth?
Beth
I watch some programmes if I really like them, but a lot of the time, if there’s a show I really like, I binge-watch it. That means I watch several episodes of a TV series in a row because then I get to enjoy it all at the same time, rather than having to wait for the next episode. Because there is some really addictive TV out there.
Neil
Yeah. Do you enjoy watching reality TV, that’s programmes about real people rather than actors.
Beth
I like some reality TV. So, for example, we have a show in the UK called The Great British Bake Off where real people compete with making cakes and biscuits and that kind of thing. And I like that show, but I’m not really a big fan of other reality shows like dating shows and Big Brother and that sort of thing.
Neil
Have you ever been obsessed with a TV show where you just cannot stop watching or talking about it?
Beth
Not recently. When I was younger, I really liked some big American TV shows and I was addicted to them because they had really big cliffhangers. That means at the end of the episode there was a big shock, and I couldn’t wait to watch the next one.
Neil
A few years ago, there were lots of dramas from Scandinavian countries like Sweden and Denmark, and I was obsessed with some of those. I watched them and I talked about them all the time.
Beth
Were they crime dramas? Or thrillers?
Neil
Some were crime, some were legal and political. All kinds. I loved them.
Beth
OK, that sounds quite good. Is there a programme that you have really enjoyed recently on TV?
Neil
Yeah, I’ve seen some really interesting documentaries about very serious topics like war for example that have been very interesting.
Beth
Yeah, I have seen documentaries like that too recently. There are quite a lot around at the moment. And I think it’s also interesting to learn about what’s happening in the world because TV is there to enjoy, but also, if you manage to learn something at the same time, then I think that is a bonus.
Neil
So, Beth, you like a programme about baking. What do you like about it?
Beth
Well, I think it’s interesting to see people cooking because in normal life you don’t see people making cakes, you just make them at home. And sometimes they do really well, they make incredible cakes and pies, and I think, wow, how do they do that?
And then sometimes it’s funny because they do really badly. So I think it’s just a good, enjoyable programme to relax. What about you, Neil, with these Scandinavian dramas? Why did you like them?
Neil
I think the stories were very interesting and I really liked listening to the language. And because I watched so many of these programmes with subtitles, after a while I thought that I could speak Swedish.
Beth
And can you speak Swedish?
Neil
No!
Let’s recap the vocabulary we learned during the conversation.
We had binge-watch, watch lots of episodes of a TV series in a row.
Beth
Reality TV, programmes about real people rather than actors.
Neil
And obsessed, unable to stop thinking about something.
Beth
That’s it for this episode of Real Easy English. If you enjoyed this programme, try our Learning English Conversations podcast, where we teach you a new English expression, every week.
Neil
Next week, we’ll talk about family traditions and celebrations.
See you then.
Beth
Bye.
Neil
Goodbye.