1. How many days will the transcription be available for free? (page 2) 4. Which month did they arrive to Colombia? (page 3)

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1 RealEnglishConversations.com Conversations Topic: Carnival in Colombia Listening Comprehension Questions A great way to stay focused and to test your listening is to listen for the answer to a question. These questions will be heard in order. You can listen for the first question. Once you hear the answer, stop the audio and read the next question to listen for. The answers are not provided but instead, we show you where you can find the answers within the transcription :) 1. How many days will the transcription be available for free? (page 2) 2. Did Amy and Curtis stop working on the Real English Conversations website for an entire year? (page 2) 3. How does Amy know Hugo? (page 2 and 3) 4. Which month did they arrive to Colombia? (page 3) 5. Where is the biggest carnival in the world? (page 3) 6. Why does Amy think Colombian s are loud? (page 3) 7. How many people were in the small car? (page 4) 8. Why did we have to learn the cumbia dance? (page 5) 9. How many parades are there? (page 5) 10. Why did they decide not to participate in the parades? (page 5) 11. Why do people spray foam and throw cornstarch at each other? (page 5 and 6) 12. How many people were at the block party? (page 6) 13. Which city did they visit for the last 3 weeks of the vacation? (page 6) 14. Did Amy study Spanish while she travelled? (page 6) 1

2 Vocabulary Hunting If you hear a new word, be sure to write it down. There are exercises at the end of the transcription to help you use the new words you have learned from this audio. Transcription: Curtis: In this English conversation lesson, we re going to talk about our fun experiences for the world s second largest carnival in Columbia. And for the English conversation tip, Amy has some great advice for you to improve your English listening skills. Curtis: Hey, everybody. I m Curtis. Amy: And I m Amy. Curtis: And welcome to the Real English Conversations Podcast. Amy: The new and improved English Conversations Podcast. Curtis: That s right. We re going to do things a little bit differently this time around. We re going, of course, have our conversation like we do as always. But for the English conversation tip, we re going to answer a question from one of our listeners and give you a bit of advice to improve your English. And then to wrap it all up, we re going to have a motivational quote. Amy: Yeah. And we actually have something new that we re going to do. So with each of our podcast episodes, we re going to make the full transcription available at our website for free for seven days. So if you want to read along with this podcast as you re listening to us, to really have the best understanding you can, make sure you go to our website. You can look for Podcast in the menu area. And you will find the latest episode there. So you can get the transcription. So let s get started with the conversation. Curtis: So you guys have probably noticed that we ve been gone for a little while and haven t recorded any new podcasts. Amy: Yeah. We ve been gone, but we haven t stopped working. We ve actually been working on a lot of things related to the website. After we started to do the first 34 podcasts that we had available, we started to get feedback from some of our students. 2

3 And they were really looking for the resources that they needed to be able to practice their speaking and improve their listening skills as intermediate to advanced learners. So we ve been doing a ton of work on the website. We ve created a whole bunch of courses, lessons and resources. Yeah. So we ve been doing a bit of that. But more importantly, and what we re going to be talking about in this conversation, is some of the stuff we ve been up to over the last year. Because we have a lot of cool stories and a lot of interesting experiences that we thought we thought would be really good for our conversations. Curtis: That s right. We started the year by going on a trip to Colombia. And we stayed with a friend of yours, that you had a language exchange with, and his family which allowed us to get really deep into the culture of what Colombia s all about. Amy: Yeah, it was pretty cool, actually. My friend, Hugo, I had been - I don t know how long we had been talking - over a year, I would say, we had a Spanish/English exchange and it developed more into a friendship with than him rather than an actual language exchange. We just kind of - Spanish and English speakers, we say we Spanglish together, so part English, part Spanish. And as long as we re communicating with each other, it s just a fun conversation. So we actually had the opportunity to stay in his house with his family. And later in a family friend of theirs, we stayed at his house for a couple of weeks. Curtis: That s true. Amy: But why were we in Colombia at that time of the year? Like we arrived in January, so why were we there? Curtis: We were there, they have a huge event. Actually, it s the world s second largest carnival. Amy: Of course, the most famous and well-known one is in Brazil, in Rio de Janeiro. Curtis: That s right. The biggest carnival is in Rio de Janeiro. But we went to Barranquilla, in the north coast of Colombia. It s a city in the north coast of Colombia. And they ve got the world s second largest carnival, next to Rio de Janeiro's carnival. And we wanted to arrive a couple weeks early, right? Amy: Yeah, we wanted to arrive early so that we could get to know the city a little bit and just hang out with Hugo, our friend. And, I mean, we knew if we had somebody that was from that area, we were going to have a completely different experience than we would have had just as tourists visiting the city. Curtis: That s true. Amy: Now, Barranquilla isn t a very touristic place. Curtis: No. 3

4 Amy: Like there s some museums and, you know, it s on the ocean, but it s not known for it s beautiful beaches and stuff like that. But if you had to say what drives Barranquilla, what would you say? Curtis: I would say music. Amy: Yeah. It s everywhere. Curtis: Music. Oh, all sorts of music too. Because the Latin musics* you know, like Salsa, bachata, merengue, they just go on and on and on. But you hear it everywhere. You hear music everywhere. And it s just vibrant. (*error by Curtis, he meant to say music) Amy: It is, it is. And I mean, there s always a neighbor playing music really, really loud. So I d probably describe, I mean, it might be a stereotype, but I would say Colombians are typically loud people. But, no, we had some really cool experiences. It was actually just, you know, the day to day living, or the things that local people do for entertainment. Curtis: Yeah. Amy: So for example, we had the opportunity to hang out with some of Hugo s friends. We went and watched a movie together. We went and had pizza and drinks, you know. Remember that night after that movie? Curtis: Oh, yeah. Amy: And we all had to pack into the car? Curtis: There was this compact car. And how many people, there was Amy: Oh, my, God. The two girls were in the front. Curtis: Two girls, Hugo, Gustavo, and me and you. Amy: In the back seat where there s three very, very small seats, we had four people. I think Gustavo was like on Hugo s lap. But anyway, what they wanted to do is they really wanted to show us this typical food, the arepa, which is like this corn tortilla thing that has an egg inside. And we had to go to this, you know, particular place. So it was better for us to get into this one car and drive so that we could have this food. But, yeah, shenanigans like that that just, you know, they just don t happen on a typical vacation. Curtis: No. Amy: You maybe go to a museum or you go to a beach, you spend a few hours there. And then you go back to your hotel or wherever you re staying. Curtis: I really enjoyed it because it was cultural. Amy: It was. Curtis: You know? It really felt like I was part of the Colombian culture. 4

5 Amy: Yeah, and we had friends and they really liked us and, you know, despite a language barrier, we did our best to communicate with them and it was just different. But we actually had one situation that was really cool. And that was that we got to practice and learn how to do cumbia with one of the groups that was practicing for carnival, for one of their performances. Curtis: Yeah, they had a band that had a drummer and a, with a big huge drum too. Amy: Like a bass drum. Curtis: Yeah. And a guy that played the flute. And they invited us to try this choreography, I guess you could say. Amy: Yeah, like it s based around the traditional cumbia dance. But they have like a routine that they re practicing for the parade. So anyway, yeah, they invited us in and they actually asked us if we wanted to participate in the carnival parade. Curtis: Yeah. Amy: And we were really excited about that. And, you know, we went to a few practices and we were dancing in the house and trying to learn, because we only had a couple weeks. Curtis: Yeah, we were really excited, what an opportunity, right? Like it was exciting. What an honor. Amy: It was. Well, we re talking about it like we didn t do it, because we didn t. So what happened? Curtis: Well, we were invited to participate in one parade. And then they told us it was going to be five. Amy: Yeah, all the parades. And we had already bought our ticket for the parades and we really, really wanted to see them. So this was something that was a really difficult decision for us. Because, I mean, we had literally been told that it was an honor to be invited to participate with this group. Like there had never been Canadians invited to participate with them. And we had to turn it down, because it just, it didn t really jive with our plans and how we wanted to experience it. One parade would have been cool, but five parades was just like Curtis: A little bit too much. Amy: That was a full commitment. Curtis: Yes. Amy: And we wanted to be spectators of the parade and enjoy the festivities and really have that experience as well. So anyway, we kind of blamed it on the hot climate. Because we re from Canada, everyone s like, oh, it s cold in Canada, right. And I mean, it s the truth. It was hot there and we probably would have died if we danced in the sun for four hours straight in the blazing hot sun. 5

6 Curtis: That s true. Some of those parades were during the hottest part of the day too. Or were going to be during the hottest part. Amy: Yeah, we would have, ugh. I don t know. We wouldn t have been up for the festivities that happen in the evening time. Curtis: That s true. Amy: So what happens at night? Curtis: What happens at night is street parties, where people throw corn starch, water, beer, foam, whatever they can get their hands on. They re spraying each other and just Amy: But it s not in a malicious way. Curtis: No. Amy: They re doing it for fun. Curtis: They re joking around, they re having a good time. Amy: Yeah. Some people don t think it s funny, but if you re in the spirit - well, I m in the - who thinks it s fun to get, you know, foam sprayed all over their head or something. But you know, it s just part of the Carnival and it s just to laugh. You just, you know, basically get your revenge by doing the same thing to someone else. Curtis: Somebody else. Amy: But, yeah, we, so anyway, we had a really, really great time in carnival. You know, one of the highlights for me was being invited to a block party that they had. Where they had this insanely noisy speaker system. Like I - they re called pickups. Curtis: Yeah. Where a DJ plays through this huge speaker. Amy: That you can hear for blocks. Like it s a concert level noise. I can t describe it. Curtis: Wow. Amy: But anyway, throughout the night more and more people come and they re all dancing and hanging out, and there s some street vendors selling food, and you know Curtis: Yeah, but the end of the night the street was packed. Amy: It was packed. There s was probably 300 or 400 people. So some of these experiences were really cool. And as tourists, I don t think that we would have ever got to have them. Curtis: No. Amy: But the later part of the vacation, we decided to explore some other areas, the last month. We went to Santa Marta. And we only went to Cartagena for one day. I wish we would have spent more time there. But we had a place rented in Santa Marta, so we just decided to spend the last three weeks, I would say, at the beach, just enjoying - I don t know. The sunsets and the sand and having a beautiful apartment really close to the beach. 6

7 Curtis: So something I would like to ask you right now that our podcast listeners would probably be interested in hearing is after three months of being in a full Spanish immersion situation, what sort of impact did that have on your language learning? Amy: Well, this is the part that s kind of interesting. Okay. So I would say that I had full immersion for a month, because when we were staying at Hugo s place, and later at Arturo s place, we definitely had full immersion. We were talking to people all day and all night in Spanish. What I found happened was the words and the grammar that I already knew, I learned how to use. But, you know, as for getting better and learning more than I had learned prior to my trip, I don t think that that happened. You know, I realized when I got back home to Canada that I really should have been inputting a little bit more information, maybe reading or studying or doing some extra exposure outside of the time where I was out talking to people, to really get the most benefit and the most learning. For me, anyway, I don t know how long I would have to be immersed in that situation to learn fluency. But it definitely wasn t in a three-month period of time in another country. So, I mean, it s a bit of a reality check. I mean, some people may have different experiences and they may learn better. For me that definitely wasn t the case. Real English Conversational Tip Curtis: So we have a question from Hassan. And he needs our help. And this is his . Dear Amy and Curtis. I ve been learning English for three years, but I ve noticed I have a lot of problems with my listening. I feel like I listen to a lot of audio, maybe an hour a day. When I watch movies with subtitles, I know most of the words. But I m not able to hear the words when I listen without subtitles. Please help me. Amy: Okay. So I ve got some advice for you, Hasan. This is actually a really common problem that a lot of people have. And I know that these poor listening skills, they don t really..; they don t really come to the surface until you re at an intermediate or an advanced level. And by then it s like, what the heck is wrong with me? I should be able to understand this video or, you know, a conversation with a native speaker. But, you know, you just can t figure out what s happening with your listening. And if you ve looked online, the recommendations are just to do a lot of listening, and it s supposed to help you to listen better. But of course, as you have said, you have been doing a lot of listening. And you re not seeing any progress. So what is going on? So here s the problem. When you listen to audio one time, you re ears are going to hear whatever they can hear. Okay? Some people, they listen a second time. And that s good, because there s a lot of people that don t listen a second time. So you re moving in the right direction. So the second time that you listen to the audio, there s going to be more things that stand out. More words that you recognize, that your ears weren t able to hear the first time. 7

8 And very few people listen more than that. And they don t use a transcription. And they really don t bother to learn the rest of the audio that they can t understand. Okay? So when somebody plays an audio with a transcription, for example. Not reading the transcription. I m saying play the audio, listen. And the moment that you don t recognize something, whether you don t hear a word or you re having a difficult time comprehending whatever is being said - it could be grammar, it could be a bunch of big words together. It could be a whole bunch of different things - you can just refer to the transcription, you can look at it. But then the next step is actually listening to that part again. Okay? You ve got to listen again. And make sure that you can hear each of those words properly. And then try listening without the transcription and make sure that your ears have now been trained to be able to hear that audio without the transcription. I have had to do this type of training on a very, very small level. When I say small level, I mean let s say that there s one or two words said really, really quickly, and my ears, they just can t hear them. Even with the transcription, I still can t hear them. They re just so fast and almost squished together, just, I can t hear them. So I ve had to put this into a software that I like to use called Audacity. And, I mean, it s kind of complicated, but it s not too bad. I have a video and I ll also include a link to that video that shows you how to use it. But I like using this software and put it in and really isolate the very, very small section of audio I m having a hard time hearing. I slow it down like 50% and I swear, sometimes I have to listen to it like 30 or 40 times to really, really break down that sound. But once I do that, it s like that sound has been added to my brain library or something. And anytime moving forward that that sound combination that I was struggling to hear before happens in an audio, I can actually understand it. So by taking the time to identify the areas that you re having a difficult time understanding, you re going to have better listening comprehension and actually hear more. It just takes a bit of training. So you can either listen to a thousand hours of audio, and maybe you ll see some results, maybe you won t. Or you can take the time, slow down, and deal with these obstacles your ears are ignoring. So with that tip in mind, make sure that you come to our website within the first seven days of this podcast, so that you can get that transcription. Don t forget to sign up for our list while you re there, so that you can get some of our best tips and advice to help you with listening and speaking. These are the things that are really going to be the key to help you reach fluency. And here s Curtis with the motivational quote of the day. Curtis: And today s motivational quote comes from Rita Mae Brown: Language is the roadmap of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. And we ll catch you guys next time. 8

9 Speaking and Vocabulary Advice While you trying to answer the questions (by speaking), you may need to look up words you don t know yet or you have forgotten. This is very important to help you learn the vocabulary you are missing while you are speaking. If you have to look up a word, be sure to write it down. We are going to give you activities to practice using this new vocabulary to help you remember it faster. Practice Activities Try to answer the questions by speaking from the listening comprehension section? Try to use a full sentence when you answer, not just one word like yes or no. For example Question: Which month did they arrive to Colombia? Answer: January Your spoken answer in a full sentence: They arrived to Colombia in January. Let s Talk about this Conversation An excellent way to make sure you know how to explain the topics discussed in this conversation is to try to talk about it. This helps you to use the words from the conversation which is different from being able to understand the audio. Give as much detail as you can when trying to answer the following questions. Try to speak for 3 to 5 minutes for each answer. Don t forget to write down new words you realize you need to know in order to explain these parts of the conversation. 1. Explain the reason why Amy and Curtis stopped recording their podcast for more than a year. 2. What kind of friendship do Amy and Hugo have? How did they spend their time talking to each other? 3. Explain the part of the conversation where everyone was packed into a small car. What was it like and where were they going? 4. Hugo was from Barranquilla. How did that change the experience Amy and Curtis had during that trip. 5. Why were Amy and Curtis excited to participate in the carnival parade? 6. Describe the block party with the loud speakers. 9

10 The Big Summary Explain this conversation in as much detail as you can and try to do it in an interesting way as if you are telling a friend about a cool conversation you heard. If you feel like you are explaining the story in a boring way you need to practice explaining it several times. Each time you explain it, you will feel more confident using the new vocabulary and you will be speaking with more fluency. You will also be practicing grammar while you are speaking. It is really helpful to repeat difficult sentences that you have to think about a lot. After you think about it several times, it becomes easier to use it. New Vocabulary Use this area to write down any new words you learned from this conversation OR words you needed to look up while speaking. 10

11 Vocabulary Test This is an exercise to help you practice using the new vocabulary you have learned. A great way to make sure you understand the words well enough to use them. 1. Use the first 5 words from your list of words you found from this conversation (or the activities). 2. While speaking, start telling a short story where the first sentence of the story uses the first word on your list. 3. After you use the first word, you need to think of a way to use the second word in the story 4. The story does not have to be real and it does not have to make a lot of sense. The objective is to practice using the new words you have learned in context Example words: carnival pack into (phrasal verb) lap get down (phrasal verb) vibrant Example story: I was really excited to go to carnival this year. My friends and I decided to pack everyone into Bob s truck. There was no extra space in the car so we had to put our stuff on our laps. When we arrived to the city, we could not wait to get down to the party area. We knew it would be vibrant and full of festivities. 11

Listening Comprehension Questions These questions will help you to stay focused and to test your listening skills.

RealEnglishConversations.com Conversations Topic: Job Interviews Listening Comprehension Questions These questions will help you to stay focused and to test your listening skills. How to do this: Listen