58: New Year's Resolution 2025

Happy New Year from Easy English! As a way to celebrate, Mitch quizzes Isi (...with the help of Buzzfeed) to find her New Year's resolution, play along with the link in the show notes. Later, Raz has a question about improving his speaking skills in our section of Unhelpful Advice. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Open the Interactive Transcript (https://play.easyenglish.fm/episodes/xe42cm9h2qde9k37xafn1) Download transcript as HTML (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/xe42cm9h2qde9k37xafn1/easyenglishpodcast58_transcript.html?rlkey=8tpcc7jut273vp5k73kbczfvh&dl=0) Download transcript as PDF (https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fi/kjwecwna26xb9rssz4x7x/easyenglishpodcast58_transcript.pdf?rlkey=q26hg29ede2xqorsjuvhvucwr&dl=0) Subscribe using your private RSS feed to listen to our bonus content and find the interactive transcript right in your podcast app. Show Notes Get your New Year's Resolution: If You Don't Have A New Year's Resolution Yet, Take This Quiz To Get A Suuuuuuuper Specific One (https://youtu.be/oJcI5FzrEE0) Transcript Intro Isi: [0:23] Hello. I'm back. Mitch: [0:28] Full of energy. Isi: [0:29] I'm back. It's a new year. I'm back. Mitch: [0:32] Happy New Year! Isi: [0:33] Happy New Year! I'm back. Mitch: [0:37] You say that like you're surprised. Isi: [0:39] I'm back. Yeah, I haven't been in the podcast for. .. (Two episodes. ) I mean, I did the Aftershow. Did anyone hear it? Dear members, did you hear the Aftershow? I did the full Aftershow. I hope people listened to that. And did, also, that I did also do the Christmas icebreakers, in my isolated COVID room. Yeah, I had COVID, it took a long time it's still not completely gone. (But now?) Do you still hear my nose? And my... what do you mean now a new year? COVID doesn't care about years change. Mitch: [1:16] Yeah, exactly. Everyone's like, new year, new me. Isi: [1:19] New me... well, new me, at least, feels a bit better. Mitch: [1:22] A bit more nasally. Isi: [1:23] A bit more nasally. I think we're now coming. Yeah, it's now four weeks. Ah. Mitch: [1:30] Okay. Isi: [1:30] That was longer than expected, but, I'm on the mend. Mitch: [1:34] On the mend. Isi: [1:35] That's a good... Mitch: [1:36] I'm on the mend. Yeah, you mend the car. You mend your broken rollerblades that you broke, directly after you got it as a Christmas present from your grandmother. Isi: [1:43] And my broken body. Mitch: [1:45] And you've mended your broken body. Isi: [1:48] Yeah. Mitch: [1:48] To cheer you up, and to make you feel a bit better and to welcome you into the new year we have a new year's, themed, episode. And plus, we have some messages from fellow listeners, they could be pranks, they could be butt-calls, but we will play them. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Mitch revives his version of the 12 Days of Christmas, before answering 25 icebreaker questions, all around Christmas! Find out his favourite Christmas film, candy, memory, present, beverage, flavour and more... Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Answer the icebreaker questions yourself: The 25 Best Christmas Icebreaker Questions (https://slideswith.com/blog/christmas-icebreaker-questions) Transcript Mitch: [0:00] Before we start this week's episode of Easy English, I just wanted to wish you all a Merry Christmas and rehash an old song I wrote. On the twelfth day of Christmas, my true love sent to me: Bluetooth earphones, Ikea voucher, an ill-fitted t-shirt, tenner in a card, second-hand bike, multi-pack of condoms, stationery set, Sports Direct socks, Bottle of Baileys, six pack of Carling, two spa days And a Blu-Ray of Die Hard II. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

This week, Mitch talks about loosing a tooth & more car troubles. In Topic of the Week, Mitch talks about the UK's fear of bad weather and Trump's competitive handshake with Macron... with added Trump impression. In Mitch's Movie Club he reviews the ridiculous new Michael Bay movie and generic soundtrack and gives his take on the new Alien movie. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Become a Conversation Member: Improve YOUR Enlgish with our membership (https://www.patreon.com/easyenglishvideos) Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:23] Hello everybody, welcome to the Easy English Podcast. Today we're flying solo, again. Isi is ill. Yeah, she doesn't feel so good, but the worst thing is her voice. It sounds like she's suddenly decided to start smoking 50 cigarettes a day. So I'm gonna fly solo. Yeah, we've both actually been in the wars, a little bit. Which isn't literal, don't worry. But it just means you've been sort of, fighting disease, I guess that's what it means, you versus germs. I haven't had a disease or anything, I actually had my tooth pulled out. When was that? Almost a week ago, I actually was supposed to have my tooth pulled on Monday, last Monday, we were driving to the dentist, and then, the car broke down, in the middle of the road, on the... in the third lane. Like, not just in the middle of the road, but in the middle of the lane, in the middle of the road. We were just sort of, stranded in the middle, calling our insurance to come pick us up, because we didn't really know what to do. As we were calling our insurance, the police turned up, at the side of the road and were like; "hey, you can't be here". Mitch: [1:49] And I said; "yeah, no sh*t. Help us!" And so they pushed us to the side of the road and I missed my appointment. I luckily, had an appointment on Tuesday and my tooth was pulled. Oh, is there anything worse than five people staring into your mouth. Someone reaching into your mouth and you have no idea what they're doing, you can only sort of, hear horrific noises. My appointment was late in the day, so... and they were kind of, I think, getting in the mood for going... going out. I don't know, maybe not, do dentists always play music? I don't know. Anyway, if you thought it couldn't be more horrific than having people reaching inside your mouth with tools you would use on your car, which is kind of ironic, just to make matters even worse, whilst he was pulling my tooth out, he was listening to Robbie Williams and whistling to it, at the same time. Mitch: [2:58] It was the song Angels. "And through it all, she offers me protection..." and at the same time, he was... I don't know, there was all kinds of noises happening inside my mouth and I had my eyes closed, because I just didn't want to see what instruments were going in, but I could just hear. And sometimes that's worse, because you're thinking what what kind of tool makes that noise!? And every so often you'd hear this like, crack... I'd hear this cracking noise, whilst whistling to angels, he'd say; "don't be concerned". "Don't be concerned". Mitch: [3:41] "Don't be concerned". But you know, we keep calm, we carry on, that's the motto of this story. I'm very British. Let's talk about things that have happened over the past month as a Topic of the Week. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

This week, with Christmas on the horizon, Mitch and Isi discuss gifts. They talk about the joy of giving gifts, Isi's thoughtful gifing vs Mitch's practical gifting. Mitch reveals the worst gift that Isi ever got him and are surprise gifts better than expected gifts for Isi? Even if it's a splintery, handmade spoon? Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes *Gift our membership perks for Christmas this year: Choose a membership tier to gift (https://www.patreon.com/easyenglishvideos/gift) Transcript Intro Isi: [0:22] Hello. Oh God. Hi. Mitch: [0:28] All of our podcasts always begin with you like hello oh god. Isi: [0:31] Oh god. Mitch: [0:32] My voice is gone. Illness update. Isi: [0:36] I'm back. Mitch: [0:38] I'm back. Oh yeah! Isi: [0:39] From the ill bed Mitch: [0:41] Did you hear the last podcast we... I recorded? Isi: [0:44] I didn't actually. Oh my god people will hate medidn't record uh didn't listen to it yet, no. But I want to listen to what you talked about. Oh god, yeah I didn't. I didn't have the headspace in my two-week illness to listen to it. Mitch: [0:58] Some could say I took one for the team. Some could say I took advantage of the fact you weren't here. Isi: [1:04] eah I'm back, had a nasty virus. Still am a bit... my voice is still not coming yeah it's kind of back now. Still have a bit of a, in the back. Mitch: [1:18] We're back in our usual position. Isi: [1:19] And it's not the morning, it's Sunday evening. (It is.) It is, I think the first time that we are having a little drinky. (We are, yeah.) With our podcast, since I don't know a year? We always did a morning podcast. Mitch: [1:37] And we're joined by a guest; Bert. Isi: [1:40] Yeah storm Bert. Mitch: [1:43] Storm Bert in the background just whistling away. Isi: [1:45] So we're two weeks, just home, two weekends two weeks and two weekends , just home, doing nothing. And now I was like, the weekend, I'm back. Mitch: [1:56] The last weekend before we go to visit our parents for Christmas. Isi: [2:01] Back to the mainland of Europe. So I was like, we do everything, we go to all the places, all the pubs, we meet friends. Mitch: [2:09] And what did we do? Isi: [2:10] We did not... well we did nearly nothing, because um, storm Bert came and... it's actually really really stormy and people... well, it was kind of like a weather warning to not leave too much and we obviously went for walks, because we got Nola, and it did feel not so good to do long drives, or go anywhere with a bus or so, because it's really stormy. Mitch: [2:38] Yeah, it's like the Michael Jackson 'Earth Song' music video out there. Isi: [2:41] So here we are, Sunday night episode, because tomorrow, actually, we will do an early, end of the workday. Because storm Bert will disappear tonight, they say. And then we will do, tomorrow afternoon, our Sunday. So hopefully a lot of Christmas deco, a nice Christmassy, pre-Christmassy dinner. Mitch: [3:03] We're in that early Christmas spirit, because, yeah, why the hell not? Isi: [3:09] Christmas is already full-on. Mitch: [3:10] And as I look at you, you are sort of engulfed in Christmas presents. They're on the table where we usually put the microphone. It's just a stash, a stack. Isi: [3:23] It's a lot of gifts, yeah. We have every gift we wanted for our families. We are absolutely ready for Christmas. And that's our topic today, gifts and gifting. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Whilst Isi is recovering from he illness, Mitch takes advantage to bring you his guide to horror films. This podcast is for both the horror lovers and horror haters, as Mitch poders what makes a great horror film. He lets you in on his favourite genre, how Arnold Schwarzenegger paved the way for his horror fascination and why a wardrobe is his Halloween costume of choice. He also gives his recommendations for people who love the things that go bump in the night, but also for people who prefer to sleep peacefully. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:00] Hello, welcome to the Easy English Podcast, episode number, tap, tap, tap, computing 54. Mitch: [0:12] I'm on my own. I've gone solo. I'm Sonny without Cher. I'm Jay-Z without Beyonce. I'm Will Smith without Jada, Barak without Michelle, etc, etc. Mitch: [0:30] Isi's ill, so she's spluttering in the background whilst I record the first ever Easy English solo podcast. But not to make it a negative, turn that frown upside down today. I'm going to take advantage of the fact that Isi's not with us to give you a podcast about one of my favourite hobbies. As a couple, it's nice to have shared hobbies, but it's also nice to have your own individual things and one of my individual things, which understandably, Isi doesn't want to partake in, is watching horror movies. I consider myself a horror movie aficionado. I'd like to think. There are some caveats to that, but today, I thought, I would try to make an inclusive podcast about horror movies, why you should be excited about horror movies, good horror movies to watch, horror movies to watch if you hate horror movies, if you're scared of horror movies. Okay, let's give it a go. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

In a regular segment of Unhelpful Advice, Isi and Mitch give their unqualified opinion on rapping in English. They later talk about their presumptions and assumptions of the French people, culture and lifestyle after spending a few weeks in the south-west of France. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:22] Hiya! Isi: [0:23] Hello! Mitch: [0:24] Hello. Welcome to episode number... Isi: [0:27] 53. Mitch: [0:28] 53, well done. Isi: [0:30] Thank you. Mitch: [0:31] Of the Easy English Podcast. We are back in Brighton. Were we ever saying where we were before? When we made our Relationship Goals Podcast last time? Isi: [0:45] I'm not sure. Maybe we did. Maybe only in the Aftershow for the members. because our podcast always goes on a little bit for our members. If you want to join that and also listen to that and get a lot of other perks go to easyenglish.video/membership and join us that would be great but I think yeah we have only talked about it in the Aftershow so we have been to France. Mitch: [1:11] Yeah, and we thought today we could make an episode about our expectations and then the realities of France, from things we've heard, things we've kind of, presumed, and if we were right and wrong with our presumptions. Isi: [1:28] Okay, I have two things to say first. I say France and you say France. Mitch: [1:34] Oh, yeah. Isi: [1:34] What is right? Mitch: [1:36] You are doing a southern British English pronunciation of France. Isi: [1:44] France. Mitch: [1:45] Which sounds nice though. Isi: [1:46] It's more sophisticated. Mitch: [1:47] It does sound a lot smoother and a lot more, I don't know. It has a joie de vivre about it. Isi: [1:55] D'accord. God. And you say France, which is Northern English. Mitch: [2:02] France. And there's also, funnily enough, not funnily enough, by coincidence how American. Isi: [2:08] Northern British English, sorry. Mitch: [2:09] Yeah. Isi: [2:10] I said that. Mitch: [2:10] It's also how I think American English people would say it; France. Isi: [2:14] France. Mitch: [2:15] Not France. Isi: [2:16] France. And the second thing I wanted to say is it hasn't been our first time in in France we both have been... in the past years we've been, five times I think. Before that I have been a few times maybe but you have been a lot of times for holidays right? Mitch: [2:37] I've been very often but mostly was a holiday and was camping and it was not really feeling like you're settled into French life because those camping places are a bit, a culture mix and they're kind of, I don't think they represent French life, but this time we were in French towns, French villages. Isi: [2:58] And yeah, your parents live there, we have to say. Mitch: [3:00] And my parents are now living there. Isi: [3:02] It's more integrating in French lifestyle. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Mitch and Isi discuss the secret to their successful relationship in a question Mitch left behind in their 150,000 subscriber special on YouTube. As a way to say thank you for your support you can get the learning material for that episode FREE by becoming a 'Free Member' of their membership with the link here - https://bit.ly/FreeEasyEnglishMembership Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Easy English Q&A 150,000 subscriber special: We Answer YOUR QUESTIONS! (https://youtu.be/KgCyU8f5UbI) (Easy English 187) FREE GIVEAWAY: Join our Free Membership (https://bit.ly/FreeEasyEnglishMembership) Transcript Intro Isi: [0:23] Hello. Mitch: [0:24] Hiya. Good start. Isi: [0:27] Yeah. Hello. Hello. I just make my voice a bit higher. Mitch: [0:32] You had a frog in your throat. Isi: [0:34] Well, it's early in the morning. We are in south-west France, but in the middle of the countryside, I look on a foggy field. Does that sound romantic? Mitch: [0:44] There are literal frogs Isi: [0:46] Literal frogs and we have a coffee podcast. So my voice was still a bit trying to get into the day. Mitch: [0:54] It's a regular theme in our podcast, your voice being dodgy. Isi: [0:58] Oh man, that was very German. Oh dear. Oh dear. Mitch: [1:02] Oh dear. So before we get started with our Topic of the Week, which is a special members question topic, because we had a 150,000 subscriber special video on YouTube where we answered your questions, which you'll be able to watch if you check out our YouTube channel. Unfortunately, because I had a massive mind fart, I forgot to check the Instagram post for questions. And there was one question left over that we didn't answer from one of our dearest, longest standing members. So we will dedicate this episode to answering his question. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

Easy English just hit 150,000 subscribers on YouTube! To say thank you we're hosting a Q&A (question and answer) for our next video. If you have any questions for them, write to them at [email protected] or on any of their socials. Join Isi and Mitch for a chat about all things breakfast! Bread rolls, DIY ramen, goldfish food, fruits and nuts, yoghurts, fry-ups, English breakfasts, bloody Marys and more... Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Our 50th podcast video episode: BRIT & GERMAN React to BRITISH MEMES (https://youtu.be/NG--e3VxMQo) (Easy English 186) Transcript Intro Mitch: [0:23] Hello welcome to the Easy English Podcast episode 51. We made it. Isi: [0:31] We made it you sounded very much like it's an official and annoying thing. Mitch: [0:36] Yeah 50 doesn't really mean much to most people to be honest. Isi: [0:39] But to us it does. Mitch: [0:40] Yeah it does it does and if you uh haven't listened then you don't need to listen you can watch episode 50 which we recorded on YouTube. so go give that a go and we also so offered, as a milestone the podcast perks to all Video Members and more for episode 50 so go get that if you are a Video Member or Podcast Member or Conversation Member or Donor Member um we actually before we get into this week's topic we hit another milestone, right Isi? Isi: [1:11] Yes, we did, it also has a 50 in it. Mitch: [1:13] We love the number 50. Isi: [1:16] We got 150... 150... 150,000 subscribers on YouTube, wow. Mitch: [1:24] That's crazy, when you think of the... (It's a crazy amount of people.) as individual people what an amazing, amazing community. 150,000 people are all helping to support us Isi: [1:35] It's not... you cannot really grasp it, the number. Thank you so much. Mitch: [1:39] Yeah there's half the city of Brighton. Isi: [1:42] Maybe it is half the city of Brighton. Mitch: [1:45] Plus my mum and your mum. Isi: [1:50] It's really nice, thank you so much. Mitch: [1:51] Yeah if you are a subscriber then thank you and if you're not then go subscribe and help us to reach 200,000. My god. (Yes, yes, yes.) So, as a way to say thank you we'd like to do two things the first is we are going to bring out an episode, a video episode on YouTube which will be out uh next week and we would like to host a Q&A for you guys so if you have a question about learning English or a question about us and want to ask it if you have something that you've been pondering for a long time anything to do with our membership to do with our YouTube channel to do with myself and Isi to do with Nola, ask us anything. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

We did it! 50 episodes of the Easy English Podcast! Watch us react to some (in)famous British memes. To celebrate, we recorded our first video episode that you can watch on our YouTube channel. We are also offering the Podcast Membership to ALL Video Members. To upgrade your membership, or to become a member, go to www.easyenglish.video/membership Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Show Notes Join the Easy English membership: Get the Interactive Transcript & Aftershow (http://www.easyenglish.video/membership) Transcript Mitch: [0:00] Welcome to the big day. Easy English Podcast episode 50. High-five. Isi: [0:08] Ow. Mitch: [0:10] Okay, so for those of you who are actually listening, you should head over to YouTube because this episode is a special episode of it being our 50th podcast episode and we're filming it live. Not live, but it feels live right now. Isi's currently making... A mess, possibly. Woo! Okay, so we're currently making Aperol Spritz to celebrate, or Isi's making it. That's not enough. Isi: [0:44] Calm down. Oh, I did it also the wrong way around. Mitch: [0:51] Disaster. Okay, so as I said, whilst Isi makes Aperol Spritz, this episode as well as being on our podcast is also... the video is on YouTube so go and watch it. If you become an Easy English member by going to easyenglish.video/membership you can, by becoming a video member for this episode get all the perks of the Podcast Membership which will be the Interactive Transcript and Aftershow of this episode. So yeah, if you become a Video Member, then you'll be able to get the podcast perks for this episode which will be the Interactive Transcript, which will be translating this live time on your laptop, on your mobile phone, on the go, or at home. You'll also be able to get The Aftershow, which is the bit that happens after this public episode, which will probably include more drinking of nondescript alcoholic beverages. So today... Isi: [1:43] They beeped for us to start. Mitch: [1:45] Wow. Beep. Let's go. Isi: [1:46] No, first we have to cheer on 50 episodes of us talking... Mitch: [1:54] Rubbish. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership

To Mitch's surprise, it actually happened... Oasis are back! The duo discuss the news and overwhelming demand for Oasis tickets. They discuss the cultural relevance of their music; being the soundtrack to nineties, naughties, politics, football, cultural events and unfortunately, tragedy. Join them for a chat about a band that defined a generation. Interactive Transcript Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership Transcript Isi: [0:00] It's a party! Mitch, you now have to give me that scream that never came. Mitch: [0:05] Yeah! Oasis are back! Sorry, Nola. Intro Mitch: [0:28] he unthinkable thing happened which I think one time I said it will never happen. Isi: [0:33] I know in the years together how often you talked about this the unimaginable happened Mitch: [0:40] The unimaginable happened. My favourite band ever Oasis decided to make a reunion. Isi: [0:50] You are freaking happy and I'm freaking happy for you I'm also happy I mean it's not that I'm not also an Oasis fan in a way I wouldn't say I'm a fan fan like you are but I'm a fan of the music for sure I love their music a lot I wanted to see them years ago before they broke up, I had tickets. Mitch: [1:10] 11 dates and if you divide that by how many people are excited it's it's going to be difficult to get tickets. Isi: [1:19] Yeah people will come from other countries to the UK, 100%. I mean, we know one, Manuel from Easy German is also a huge fan. He will for sure try to, he will go to the UK because it's the only European date. So that's what they said, which I can't believe really. I see them already playing in France, Germany or wherever. Mitch: [1:36] Yeah, but they've not announced that. So at the moment on Saturday, they've only got 11 gigs available. I'm happy, but they are the kind of band where you kind of want to get insurance on your ticket. Isi: [1:50] Well you get your money back if they have a big fight over five pints and... Mitch: [1:55] I hope so how did it work for the people who Isi: [1:58] Just imagine they would get all those tickets tickets now to make uh make some more money and then they say it's off. Support Easy English and get interactive transcripts and bonus content for all our episodes: easyenglish.fm/membership