How important is personal space and body language when you are communicating? What’s the difference between alone, by myself and on my own? All this and more in this week’s episode of…..Aprender Inglés con Reza y Craig.
Email from Alberto from Granada who is transcribing episodes for us.
I saw recently a British TV drama called “The Fall”, starring Gillian Anderson, which is set in Northern Ireland. Don’t know if you’ve seen it, but I totally recommend it. I really loved the Northern Irish accent, you know, like every sentence is a question and the tone rises at the end. I found it very funny. Could you please ask Reza to do some Northern Irish accent for me, pleaseeee? I would really enjoy it!
Alberto
Voice message from Jesus from Valencia about subtitles when watching films and TV series
(Jesus is another AIRCoholic)
“I’ve been studying English my whole life” / “I’ve been taking it seriously since…./for the last year and a half.”
Pronunciation of ‘searched’ only ‘t’ and ‘d’ sounds for the ‘ed’ ending (started, landed, farted, painted, needed, decided, waited)
I watch A BUNCH of movies
Dependant XaboutX – ON
Mamen from Biescas
On my own / by myself / alone / lonely
‘On my own’ – when you do stuff without help – “I painted the flat on my own”, “I fixed my bike on my own.”
‘By myself’ usually describes a situation, not when you do something.
Useful apps for your phone
Quizlet: https://quizlet.com/es
Memrise: https://www.memrise.com/
Duolingo: https://www.duolingo.com/
Improve your speaking with an italki teacher
Voice message from Miguel (Michael) who doesn’t have a dog. He has a baby and a cat.
English people are very ‘close moved’ or ‘separative’ (stand-offish, aloof, distant, remote, detached, impersonal, withdrawn, reserved, uncommunicative, unforthcoming, unapproachable, unfriendly, unsociable, cool, chilly, cold, haughty, disdainful, uninvolved, unresponsive, indifferent, unconcerned, introverted)
They guard their personal space.
Would you sit at a table that was already taken in a crowded bar or cafe if there were empty seats? 
Which cultures need a lot of personal space?
Which nationalities don’t necessarily need a lot of personal space?
How important is body language when you are communicating?
Should you kiss an English woman when you are introduced to her for the first time?
How important is a handshake? – Should you get the upper hand?
TED Talk by Allan Pease:
Documentary on body language:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oqUSA0fWkOs
Do you kiss and hug men that you are close to?
What other cultural differences can you think of between the Spanish and the English?
– meal times and business hours
– siesta
– eating & drinking habits
– Christmas and New Year
– politeness & directness
– tutting (to say no) and hissing (to get someone’s attention)
– customer service
…and now it’s your turn to practise your English. Do you have an opinion on personal space, or anything we’ve spoken about in this podcast?
Send us a voice message and tell us what you think. https://www.speakpipe.com/inglespodcast
Send us an email with a comment or question to [email protected] or [email protected].
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Our lovely sponsors are:
Nikolay Dimitrov
Ana Cherta
Pedro Martinez
Manuel García Betegón
Maite Palacín Pérez
Lara Arlem
Maria Gervatti
Sara Jarabo
Carlos Garrido
Zara Heath Picazo
Mamen
Juan Leyva Galera
Corey Fineran
Mariel Riedemann
Jorge Jiménez
Raul Lopez
Rafael
Manuel Tarazona
Agus Paolucci
Manuel Velázquez
Néstor García Mañes
Juan Carlos
We want to thank Arminda from Madrid and Alberto from Granada for continuing to transcribe full transcriptions. Alberto has transcribed episodes 132 and 133, so we now have full transcriptions for episodes 131 to 142.
On next week’s episode: Academic terms and vocabulary
The music in this podcast is by Pitx. The track is called ‘See You Later’
Hi! What an awsome episode! Especially the end when you speak about social behavior. I think that English and Spanish are socially quite different but five years ago I was in Exeter visiting some Primary schools with several co-workers. We had been warned about do not touch the children (in Spain to touch the children is something natural and viceversa). Well, the thing is that I was in a classroom with children of 7 or 8 years old. The English teacher sent the pupils to the computer corner. We were sitting on a carpet working the exercises with several tables. Suddenly I felt an arm on my right leg (one of the girls was touching me, so I was very embarrased thinking that someone would come and punish me). Then another girl sit closer trying to explain to me something on the Web page. I could not resist to touch their heads softly; they laughed and me too. The thing is that their reaction were exactly the same that some Spanish children could have.
Everything depends on the moment and the people. Sometimes you would never kiss people on the cheek, while other times you would. In my family everyone kisses the others but I have got friends that never do whith theirs. I love gentle people.
By the way, I cannot stand people that call you with a whistle and similar. I love gentle people.
Marian
Chidren who are 7 or 8 years old don’t have many of the social stigmas, behaviour and restrictions that adults have. It would be nice if we could behave and react exactly as we feel and not have these social norms that we acquire through life from our families and peers.
Hello from Italy. I am a Romanian girl who teaches English in Pavia. I love listening to your podcasts.
Hi Melania. I’m pleased that you found our podcast. Let us know if you have any questions about English or any comments about our show.
Hi Reza and Craig! thank you very much for your podcast I like them very much. I’d love it if you could talk about the “th” sound, I have doubts about its correct pronunciation, it’s different in words like: “the”, “thing”, “Thomas”, “Thatcher”… Thank you very much!
Thanks for your question, Ainhoa. We will definitely answer it in a future podcast.
To Marian:
That observation of you, about the children, proves that we are born all equal and eventually life and social surroundings carve our behaviour. Somehow we get “contaminated” with imposed behaviour standards.
To C&R:
I like the podcast presentation picture!! It looks as if the heads and the silhouettes are a match!! Almost…
Thanks for the comment on the show art, Josep. I use https://www.canva.com/ to create the picture each week, and I really enjoy messing about with this tool. Great fun!
Extremely interesting that documentary about body langauge secrets by History Channel. Thanks for sharing.
Here’s another of my favourites you might like, Josep. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ks-_Mh1QhMc
To Alberto,
Hi, I’d like so much to know how to find the fall’s serie. I’ve been searching it but without any results.
I’ve just seen a little of it and It hooked me.
Thanks a lot!!