S1 E1: Morning Time Routine Intermediate and Advanced English Vocabulary Podcast Daily Life English

all right hello hello everyone welcome highlevel listeners I'm cat or cat teacher and I'm Mark or Mark teacher as well thank you very much for joining uh we're really glad to have you here for our first ever season of high Lev listening live classes and our first ever episode um we'd like to begin by introducing ourselves and telling you who we are my name's Mark I'm from the UK K uh I'm from just outside of London about 30 or 45 minutes by train and I've been a teacher for just over 10 years now and I'm

cat or cat teacher I am the American Voice on High level listening um I've been a teacher definitely over a decade um I don't always like to tell people that because it makes me feel old but yeah I've been teaching English as a second language since okay we're not even going to guess the year that I started teaching um taught in a couple of different countries students of all levels from little kids who are learning English for the first time to adults who want to work on their conversational skills business skills Etc and what Mark

and I found over time when teaching all of these students is that there were just not enough materials for our highlevel students our Advanced students could watch TV or they could you know watch American movies or TV shows but there wasn't a lot for them to learn there wasn't a lot for them to figure out how to get better conversationally of course you can watch TV you can watch movies but there was no one out there breaking it down to make it easier for students who are learning English as a second language MH well yeah

so hopefully with our combined experience of almost two decades we hope to create some listening materials which are full of vocabulary Advanced phrases Expressions that maybe only native speakers use or say or maybe phrases or vocabulary that you don't often see in textbooks so yeah the first topic that we're going to present today is morning routines morning routines are a very common starting point usually it's one of the first things you learn when you learn English as a beginner I get up I brush my teeth I put on my clothes and so on we're going

to use the same topic but we're going to give you a much higher level version where we speak more quickly we use phrases that native speakers will probably use to describe their morning and you'll get to hear these phrases will explain the ones that we think are the most useful use ful and the most interesting and then you'll have some more expressions and some more words to know to understand people talking about their mornings and for you to use when you talk about your morning so uh the question we're going to ask each other and

the question we're going to answer is how was your morning so cat how was your morning yeah uh this morning was pretty standard for me I woke up around 7 am 7ish thanks to my trusty alarm uh hit snooze of course and laid in bed for a bit scrolling through my phone eventually I got up brushed my teeth and headed straight to the kitchen I guess I whipped up some toast and scrambled eggs and poured myself a fresh cup of coffee can't do without it after breakfast I took a quick shower and then got dressed

for the day before heading out I checked my emails one last time like you gotta and uh that's about it really okay awesome uh so for my morning routine this morning was fairly ordinary for me woke up around 7 with my alarm hit snooze as you do then stayed in bed for a bit scrolling on my phone then I got up brushed my teeth and went to the kitchen I made some toast and some scrambled eggs and had a cup of tea after eating I had a quick shower and got PR for work had a

quick look at my emails before I left and that's about it really all right so kind of our goal with these new highl listening podcast episodes we're trying to give you as much good vocabulary that still sounds natural in the sentence you can see that Mark and I actually had very similar mornings we did lots of things that were very similar it was a pretty standard morning for me we both laid in bed scrolled on our phone for a little bit we both made some breakfast pretty quickly I had a cup of coffee in standard

British fashion he had some he had a cup of tea so we both got dressed for the day and we wanted to get out of the house head to work start our day and we um of course with work we checked our emails for the last time so what we tried to do is make sure that both of us as an American and a British language speaker that we wanted to show you that there are some differences in the language there are some differences between American English and British English and it's not just vocabulary sometimes

it's a little bit of the sentence structure so if you've ever wondered why you understand more Americans or more Brits maybe you can kind of see you can start to see some of the differences between our phrases so Mark do you want to just get us started with kind of how you started your morning or what was kind of the beginning of your morning routine yeah of course um so I'm from the UK therefore some of the phrases in my script were more common for British speakers actually when we made these scripts I looked at

them and I tried to tweak them or change them a little bit so they included lots of good British phrases the first more British phrase that I said was fairly ordinary fairly ordinary the sentence this morning was fairly ordinary for me if you heard cat's version she said pretty standard so pretty standard fairly ordinary pretty in my opinion as a br British speaker pretty is a bit more common with American speakers pretty meaning quite or fairly yeah American speakers American movies you will hear that phrase more often there in the UK I think we say

quite or fairly more often if I said pretty ordinary something would go off in my head like that's not me I would say fairly ordinary quite ordinary so I said this morning was fairly ordinary for me cat said this morning was pretty standard for me these two phrases have exactly the same meaning I naturally say fairly and Cat might naturally say pretty but the meaning is exactly the same and we want to mention that both of these are these are normal mornings it was a pretty normal morning see there I am there I go again

pretty normal pretty average pretty standard and this is just a word that we often use to kind of mean kind of sort of barely fairly it kind of means the same thing but it's very common pretty standard pretty normal pretty average these are pretty common phrases that we use that we use quite often okay quite often especially in commonly spoken and just chatting with friends it's pretty common it's pretty common it's fairly common or it's quite common I feel like as a brip uh if I have to say pretty or if I try and say

pretty I even americanize my accent a little bit I say pretty yeah it's pretty good it's pretty good it's pretty hot it's pretty nice I have to say pry D where the t's sound like D's yes like an American accent like I even have to change the way I do it to use that word so I'm sure if I'm talking to my mom from the UK or if I start talking to my sister and my British accent really comes out I will start saying fairly and quite like it was fairly warm outside fairly cold and

and that makes sense especially because the word pretty Pretty P R TT y pretty in an American accent is pretty almost like a light D D sound pretty pretty common pretty normal pretty standard pretty ordinary so we often I mean I can I can see why if you do start to use it Mark that you would use it more with the American otherwise pretty pretty it makes me sound like I'm I'm trying to be British pretty pretty oh she's pretty pretty yeah right I've got two choices in British I can go like really fullon British

and skip the te's and say pretty pretty e no teas pretty good pretty boring I have to go like maximum turn it up to 100 or I say pretty expensive pretty ordinary and then I don't know it doesn't feel right it doesn't feel right so it is more common in British English and uh it's less common it's less common in British English more common in American English so the next thing that I think most people do when they first wake up is actually they just lay in bed for a bit okay they just lay in

bed for a bit lay in bed for a bit now I'm talking about something that happened before or happened this morning so I said I laid in bed laid in bed for a bit laid in bed laid in bed for a bit I laid in bed for a bit I laid in bed for a bit meaning I didn't get up from bed I didn't get up from my bed I just was laying back opening my eyes and for a short period of time for a few minutes for a bit I laid in bed for a

bit yeah sure I it's pretty normal for me first I wake up so I wake up my eyes open but I don't get up because get up is off the covers and get out of bed often I wake up and I don't want to get out of bed maybe it's cold outside I'm too comfortable um I usually grab my phone and I like in the script said uh what did I say scrolled through my phone I scrolled through my phone a little bit so that's me laying in bed in my version I said stayed in

bed cat said laid in bed laid in bed stayed in bed have exactly the same meaning uh we might talk about this later the past tense laid laid in I said stay in the D the last word connects with in so it's Le lein bed also Stayin stayed in bed so laid in bed for a bit stayed in bed for a bit we might talk about this later but it's an example where the last letter connects to the preposition laid in bed stayed in bed I just stayed in bed and scrolled through my phone you

know and it's funny too we don't actually need an article here um I see a lot of students saying you know I stayed in the bed I stayed in my bed um really just stayed in bed go to bed stayed in bed laid in bed now laid is the physical action of laying down and stay is to not move but they mean the same thing we didn't move from our bed we just laid in bed for a bit laid in bed stayed in bed now I did finally get up at some point I did finally

get up I brushed my teeth brushed brushed my teeth and headed straight to the kitchen now I the more that I speak normally in my classes I realize that the verb head I've used this a lot and it usually when we're talking about heading somewhere we mean mean going okay get ahead go ahead do something go straight head straight head north head south this verb is very common and it simply means to go so I headed straight to the kitchen headed straight to the kitchen straight to the kitchen so I got up brushed my teeth

H I'm so hungry I headed straight to the kitchen I didn't stop just went straight to the kitchen headed also a more American phrase I think I don't say headed uh in fact I often think of this phrase in the question where are you headed where are you headed where are you going where are you headed where are you going so to head to go maybe it's an easier verb because yeah I go and yesterday I went now I head yesterday I headed yeah so a little bit easier but uh again as a British person

I probably wouldn't say that okay I would say I got up brushed my teeth and went straight to the kitchen not the bathroom not the bedroom straight to the kitchen maybe because I'm really hungry um Kat actually got to use a cool phrase when she talked about breakfast can you read about what you yeah I uh I whipped up some toast and scrambled eggs I whipped up um you know it's funny we when you whip up something you think of um kind of making something very quickly uh you know I'm not really interested in a

recipe right now it doesn't have to be perfect I'm just GNA okay I'm just GNA uh yep yep I'm awake uh sure I'll just put some toast in there and I'll just do this simple easy just whip something up okay so I whipped up some toast I whipped up some toast so whipped up whipped up whipped up some toast whipped up some toast and scrambled eggs yes uh imagine you open your fridge and you only have three ingredients and they're all very random you're hungry and you need to make something if you take random different

ingredients and you just put them together and make a meal you whipped up something so whip up is speed it's doing it quickly and whip up sounds like you're not following a recipe you're just using what you have in your house at the time so yeah I Just Whipped something up for lunch it's a few vegetables and some leftover meat from yesterday so if you whip something up we use this in the morning because often you don't have time to make a really nice meal you have to wake up get ready go to work so

time is important so I think that's why we put whipped up some toast and scrambled eggs my version was very normal I said I made some toast and scrambled eggs it has the same meaning cats one whipped up scrambled eggs and toast that sounds a bit f like she had a bit less time or she was in more of a hurry so if you whip up something you're in a hurry maybe in the morning or maybe yeah some last minute change to your schedule uh another British American example was the next one uh cat what

did you have with your scrambled eggs and toast I poured myself if even if I don't eat breakfast I have to have a cup of coffee whether if I don't have time to make it at home then I'll pick it up on my way or I'll visit the cafe that's really close to our house so if I poured myself a fresh cup of coffee so um that's kind of the act of taking the hot of coffee and pouring myself so I poured I didn't pour Mark a cup of coffee I didn't pour my cats a

cup of coffee I poured it for myself so it's kind of a weird setup there I poured myself almost sounds like I poured me into a cup of coffee but I poured myself a cup of coffee I poured my friend a cup of coffee so I poured myself a fresh cup of coffee I need it I have to have my cup of coffee Americans are pretty addicted to cups of coffee in the morning so I poured myself a fresh cup of coffee and Mark in typical British fashion had a cup of tea yes a cup

of tea I could also say poured myself a cup of tea uh I made it just for me I'm not sharing it I poured myself a cup of tea another verb that you can use it with is made myself I made myself a cup of tea or I made myself a cup of coffee uh when you're making food you can also use made myself maybe I made myself some toast and scrambled eggs again that is for me I didn't make enough to feed my or children or whoever it's just for me I made a small

portion I made myself some toast I poured myself some coffee I made myself a cup of tea yes classic British drink you can drink tea in the morning in the afternoon in the evening some people drink tea before bed I think we have a slight tea addiction of course there are loads of people who also drink coffee coffee is super popular in the UK we have Starbucks we have big coffee chains but tea uh is still number one just about us aink British yes very true uh it's probably something you drink at home you go

in England I think you go out for coffee or you meet in a coffee shop um but at home everyone has tea or tea bags if you have guests you always offer them a cup of tea or coffee so you go out if you went out for tea um that's a a separate meal that's a separate occasion we usually have tea at home and coffee when you go out usually i''s say and you know it's funny to think of um you know a fresh cup of coffee most people are separating all three words cup of

coffee but kind of when we're saying it quite quickly a fresh Cupa cup of coffee cup of coffee cup of coffee and I would also I always hear you because you even have a word for it Mark right like aa aa oh yeah right so it's a cup of tea the of becomes uh cup tea cup tea of transforms cup te and then we ditched the third word and then became CER a CER do you want a copper do you fancy a copper if you go to a British person's house and they say do you

want a cupper do you want a cup of tea do you want a cupper so be ready for that question because it's not always obvious as Cat knows and it's not even obvious for me and I'm I'm an American Native English speaker and the first time someone offered me a Cupa and I was like a cup of what and everyone looked at me like I was crazy and I said what' you think yeah rude yeah sorry uh yes whatever it is a cup of whatever you want to give me sure but when they're asking w

a Cupa they mean a cup of tea now that's not as common in the US we would say hi can I get you a coffee can I get you a tea so if you were invited to my house I would be like would you like a cup of coffee would you like a cup of tea would you like some water we'll offer you a refreshment but it's not always coffee and it's could be water um it is common to ask them if they want something to drink would you like anything to drink can I get

you something to drink but we don't use that Kaa nearly as often as um they do in the UK H okay um yeah later on in the script we saw another example of the American verb head head and go yeah but uh C used it as a phrasal verb instead um can you see the line yeah so before heading out before heading out to head out is to leave hey guys nice party um we're going to be heading out okay uh yep we're heading out see you next week okay so before heading out to head

out is to leave okay so leaving my house leaving my home before heading out before heading out oh yeah I quite like that because Mark would say something a little bit different yeah there is a British version of this uh as the phrasal verb if I say o look at the time I've got to head off cat said head out I would say head off you even said that in an American accent head out head out it went straight up my nose head out and head off head off head off head off yes right yeah

uh it's a good example where it's a phrasal verb so there's the verb head and the second word is called the particle and that has more meaning head is go head out out of the building out of the room so leave um off and out can mean the same thing when it's a phrasal verb particle so head out head off there are a few variations as well some older British people might say pop off I was about to pop off means go in this case off means out so I've got to pop off sry goodbye

um so yeah we I maybe think the only time Brits will use head is with this phrasal verb head off before heading off to work I checked my emails or before we headed off we packed our suitcases and checked our pockets um one more example it's a phrasal verb right head off if you change off you can make it mean something different again because the particle has more meaning head in head in means enter a building so head out is leave or head off is leave let's head in let's head into the restaurant or let's

head into town let's head into the city let's enter the city let's go into the city so you can play with that particle and you can actually make different meanings with one word and you can see that it is quite common for Americans I've I've naturally used it to say that I headed into the kitchen I headed straight to the kitchen so I went to the kitchen I headed straight to the kitchen I before heading out before leaving before going out before going to work before leaving before heading out I did something else so I

naturally use this twice in here and it is such a common verb to replace going doing something going in going out leaving entering these words we don't use them as often so if you want to kind of upgrade your conversation a little bit start start using some of these uh phrasal verbs head in head out head off yeah uh so the very last lines or the last line of this script I said uh had a quick look at my emails I had a quick look quick look at my emails quick look so maybe just 30

seconds email okay check check finished 10 seconds 20 seconds I had a quick look at my emails you can use quick before lots of verbs I had a quick bite to eat a quick visit a quick trip uh a quick look I looked at it just for a few seconds and then I went to work again in the morning you don't have a lot of time to hang around you have to go to be on time so this is a simple phrase had a quick look at my emails and for me while Mark had a

quick look at his emails I checked my emails now if I'm checking my emails I feel like I'm spending a little bit more time looking through them reading them maybe replying but um I am heading out right so before heading out I checked my emails one last time so before heading out okay I'm just going to make sure let me check if there's anything important no it looks okay so I'm G to head out I'm going to go I'm G to leave for the day I'm G to get started with my day outside of the

house and uh to end our lesson today that's about it really that's about it that's all that happened all right we about to head out or I well you're about to head out I'm about to head off yes um thank you for joining us today everyone this is our very first episode so we'd love to hear your feedback we'd love to hear um what you thought about the lesson what you thought about all the vocabulary and if you have any questions about how to use this vocabulary um some good questions might be what's the difference

between this and this can I say this what can I use here how can I use this phrase so that would be great to use in the future um you can check out our chat messages here on the side and you can leave us a message and we'll try to get back to you or we'll be able to have a look and for our next episode we might be able to share some common questions or some frequently asked questions just to help our students make sure that they understand everything so we hope that you benefited

from this and you should visit us at highle listening to improve your English listening understanding and speaking skills yes uh one more thing you can also get uh the an MP3 version of our morning routine script we've also put it on our website high ling.com and I put the link in the messages so if you click that link you'll go to our website you will see two MP3s of me and Cat plus the transcript so if you don't catch every word you can read along and see any words or phrases you missed and we'll be

doing this for every future episode we'll have the main idea the main topic and then we'll support it with these live classes where you can join in we'll dive deep into the different phrases grammar and vocabulary and uh yeah take your English to the next level yes absolutely and we'll share a little bit of culture along the way um since I'm born and raised in America and Mark is from the UK you get two different perspectives of very common English accents so thank you so much everyone we're gonna head off and we'll see you for

our next episode next week on Monday same time same place bye everyone thank you guys byebye