Disclaimer

I am using an automatic transcript service as it is not possible for me to do it on my own and I cannot afford human transcription at the moment. The service claims to have about 95% accuracy, which means there will still be some mistakes, so my apologies for having a less than perfect transcript, but I hope I can afford human transcription soon and I will solve this problem. However, the service is pretty good, and the transcript is almost perfect.

Transcript

Welcome to a new episode from English plus podcast. In today’s episode, we are going to talk about books and films. But what we’re going to learn is how to talk about books and films, how to talk about our preferences when it comes to reading books and when it comes to watching films or movies, of course, So without further ado, let’s start with what we want to explore in today’s episode from English plus podcast, let’s start with books.

[00:00:34] We’re going to listen to Ben talking about his preferences when it comes to reading books. So let’s listen to that. And then we will focus on a couple of things he will say. And we will talk a little bit more about that. So. Ben. Well, when it comes to talking about books, I can say that I used to hate literature at school, but now I read a lot.

[00:00:55] I started off with fiction. I read hundreds of novels, mostly thrillers and science fiction. My favorite author is John literary. Recently I’ve started reading quite a lot of biographies and even some poetry. Two of my favorite poets are Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia, Lorca. They both wrote poems in the early 20th century.

[00:01:19] All right. So here in this very small account from Ben about his preferences and what kind of books he reads, that is a very simple, but a very effective way. We can use to talk about books. Let’s dig in a little bit deeper and see what language he used to talk about. His favorite books, what books he reads, et cetera.

[00:01:39] Now, first of all, he said, I used to hate literature at school. Maybe a lot of people say that because of the way literature is taught at school. It is not taught to be appreciated and loved for its beauty and content. Of course it is more or less just like another piece of homework. Maybe that’s why some people hate literature at school.

[00:01:59] But anyway, he said, I used to, and of course, when we say I used to hate literature, that means not anymore. Now I love it. Or at least I don’t hate it anymore. Literature, of course we mean serious and important writing. So he used to hate literature at school, but now he said, now I read a lot. I started off with fiction.

[00:02:18] Now fiction here. What do we mean by fiction fiction are stories about imaginary people and events. And of course there are a lot of genres and he mentioned a couple. He said, I read hundreds of novels and novels are fiction books. He said, mostly thrillers and science fiction. Now, these are two famous genres when it comes to fiction.

[00:02:38] And here, when we talk about thrillers, we’re talking about exciting stories, often about crime and science-fiction are stories about the future. We have other genres, other types of novels, and you can choose the type you like and say, what kind of novel do you read? Then of course, another thing after you talk about the type of books that you read fiction or nonfiction, and here, for example, we said novels, thrillers, science fiction.

[00:03:03] What about your favorite author? That is a very common thing to talk about. When we talk about books, we say my favorite author is this person, that person. Now for Ben, it is John , but for others it might be anybody else. It might be Stephen King. It might be Dan Brown it’s might be James Patterson. It might be Margaret Atwood.

[00:03:22] It’s up to you. Of course. And of course it’s not necessary to have a favorite author. You might have favorite authors, et cetera. But remember, we’re talking about how to talk about books and films, and that is something you might want to add when you want to talk about your favorite books. And then he said, Recently I’ve started reading quite a lot of biography.

[00:03:41] So here we shifted to another genre of books. Biographies. What are these biographies are stories of a person’s life written by another person. If it is written by the same person we would call it autobiographies. So here biographies are not exactly fiction books. They are non-fiction because they’re talking about a real person and real events.

[00:04:03] And he said, and even some poetry now poetry are pieces of creative writing in short lines. Of course, you all know what poetry is. You might like it. You might not, you might like poetry by some writers and not by others or poetry from certain ages and not from others. It’s up to you of course, to have a favorite poet like Ben here.

[00:04:22] His favorite poets are Antonio Machado and Federico Garcia Lorca. So here again, you can talk about your favorite writer. Or as we said earlier, author and the author, just to remind you that is the person who writes books, someone who writes books, we call this person an author. So here we talked about poets.

[00:04:42] And as we said, these are three words, poetry. We’re talking about. Those pieces of creative writing poets are the people who write those creative pieces and poems are the single pieces that they write. Collectively, they are called poetry because here he said they both wrote poems in the early 20th century.

[00:05:00] So that was about books. Now let’s move on to talk about films, but let me remind you that you can find the transcript of this episode in a link you will find in the description of this episode, that will take you to our website English plus podcast.com. There, you will find everything you need to take your English to the next level.

[00:05:17] We have interactive activities. We have a PDF downloadable practice worksheet. Of course it’s not the same for all the episodes is depends on the episode. Sometimes we add all of these. Sometimes we add just one of these, but you will always find something that will take your English to the next level.

[00:05:32] And one more thing. If you like the content we’re creating and you would like to support us to create more of the content you love. There is another link that will take you to our Patreon page. You can become our patron on Patreon, support us and help us create more content and reach more people. Now, with that being said, let’s move on to talk about films or how to talk about films.

[00:05:52] Now here, Ben again, will help me with sentences talking about film preferences, and we will stop at every sentence and discuss a word or two or interesting things that we can use in our own speaking and writing. So let’s start with the very first one. And the question is. The question that people are responding to is how do you decide which films you are going to see now, of course you can talk about your favorite films, your favorite directors, your favorite actors, et cetera.

[00:06:18] But this is a valid question. How do you decide which films you’re going to see now, we’re going to listen to different responses by people and we will discuss important words or phrases we can use in our own speaking. When we want to talk about our preferences, when it comes to films. So let’s start with the first one.

[00:06:37] If it’s a horror film, I usually go and see it. I love horror films. So that was the first, if it’s a horror film, he usually goes and sees it. He loves horror films. So he, yeah, it can be depending on the genre or the type of movie, if it’s a horror film and now a horror film of course, is a film that makes people frightened, like Dracula or something.

[00:06:59] But it could be other films could be science-fiction films could be a drama film. It could be an action, action, comedy, romantic comedy, et cetera. It can be any kind of movie that you like the best. And that is what makes you decide to go and see the film here. If it’s this kind of movie. I will definitely go and see it because I love this kind of movie, whatever that is.

[00:07:20] In our example, it was horror films, but it could be any other kind. So don’t just take the couple of words we learn, but take the expressions and try to personalize them to yourself. Try to think. For me, what can I say about that? Well, I may say if it’s a comedy film, I usually go and see it. If it’s a science fiction film, I usually go and see it.

[00:07:41] So don’t take the examples we’re talking about here and use them literally of course, try to personalize them and use them in a way that is true about yourself. So now let’s talk about the second example. If a film gets good reviews, then I often go and see it. So here it’s not about the kind of movie we’re talking about.

[00:08:00] The reviews of a movie. Now here, when we say, if a film gets good reviews, what are reviews? Reviews are opinions in a newspaper or magazine or online? Of course. If the film gets good reviews, then he often goes and sees it. So here, this is the deciding factor. And the second example, it’s not the type of movie, but it’s the reviews.

[00:08:23] If the movie gets good reviews, I will go and see it. Now that might be true about you. That might not. Some people just wait for reviews to come out and based on the reviews, they decide to watch the movie or not. Maybe that’s you, maybe that’s not, but at least that’s a way to talk about films. Now let’s move on to the next example and see other ways or other deciding factors when it comes to watching films.

[00:08:45] If there’s a big star in it, then I’m more likely to see it. I don’t normally go and see films. If I don’t recognize the names of the actors. No, some people let’s face it. They think about it this way. They love certain stars. And when we talk about stars in the context of films, we’re talking about famous actors or actresses.

[00:09:03] So here, if there is a big star in the movie, then he is, or she is more likely to see it. Some people think about it this way. You might be like that. You might not. There’s nothing wrong about that. Of course, that is your opinion. That might be the deciding factor for you to watch a movie or not. And here I don’t normally go and see films.

[00:09:22] If I don’t recognize the names of the actors, if I don’t know, I haven’t heard of this actor or this actress before I don’t go, some people are like that. Some people are more adventurous. They’re not to be honest, I’m kind of like that. I tend to be adventurous and watch movies made by people I haven’t heard of because you know, that’s the whole point of movies, you know, it’s an adventure it’s to learn something new, to see something from the eyes of people you haven’t seen before.

[00:09:48] So here, I might disagree with this person if there is a big star. Yeah, of course. If there’s a big start, I might go watch a movie, but that’s not a deciding factor for me, but it was a deciding factor for this person. If there’s a big star in it, then I’m more likely to go and see it. Now let’s move on and talk about another person.

[00:10:05] And this person will talk about how serious or complicated the film is. I’m not interested in films that are serious or complicated. I only go to the cinema for entertainment here. It’s not about the stars or the genre or the type of the movie, et cetera. It is about how complicated the movie is. Now.

[00:10:25] Complicated means difficult to understand. Now let’s face it. Some movies are complicated and are difficult to understand. You need to focus and you need. Maybe to watch the movie two or three times to really understand what the movie is about. Some people enjoy these kinds of movies, some people don’t, and there’s nothing wrong about that.

[00:10:44] It’s just a matter of preference, right? For this person. He said, I only go to the cinema for entertainment, entertainment are things you see or do to enjoy yourself. And the cinema is like that for a lot of people, it’s just entertainment. I go there for two hours. I sit, relax, and I want this movie to take me to another place away from my daily life, routine and problems.

[00:11:10] I don’t want to think about problems. I’m just here to laugh or to entertain myself. It doesn’t have to be a comedy film, of course. So that is a valid opinion, of course. And there’s nothing wrong about that. So if you are interested in serious and complicated films, you can say that you can say, I am interested in serious or complicated films.

[00:11:28] I really enjoy going to these films and just focus the whole time to understand what the movie is really about. Maybe I enjoy that. Maybe I don’t, maybe I just go to the movies to enjoy myself, to relax and to entertain myself. That’s the job of the movie for me. It might be an opinion for you to add. It might be a deciding factor why you would decide to watch this movie or that movie.

[00:11:49] Now let’s move on to the next opinion and see the deciding factor for this person. I like comedies and especially romantic comedies. I’ll go and see anything that  now here. I like comedies and comedies. We’re talking about films that are funny, of course, and especially romantic comedies, romantic comedies, or comedies that have a love story in them.

[00:12:10] And for this person may be anything that Ashton Kutcher is in. You might have this actor that you really love actor or actress, of course. And wherever you see this actor or actress in any movie, whatever the movie genre is, you just go and watch the movie. Maybe it is the case. Maybe like here, comedies romantic comedy.

[00:12:30] It’s just like the first example, horror films. So it could be the genre or it could be the star himself or herself. Now let’s move on to the next opinion. I look to see what’s on and go to anything that I fancy seeing. Oh, here, this person is a little bit different. There’s no specific genres. There’s no specific actor or actresses or stars in general.

[00:12:51] This person said, I look to see what’s on. What’s on me is what films are being shown at the cinema at the moment. So you just look at you, see, you know, there’s this film, there’s that film. And then you decide. And then I go to anything that I fancy seeing fancies, like want to see or like to see. So that is another type of people.

[00:13:09] And the deciding factor is simply just, I look to see what’s on what’s on, is a very interesting phrase that you want to use. And in the context of films or movies, what’s on means what films are being shown at the cinema at the moment. And now for our very last person or very last opinion, obviously let’s hear it and then wrap up our episode.

[00:13:30] For me, the film director is the most important thing. I always go and see the latest film by directors. I really like such as Steven Spielberg. Now it could be Steven Spielberg for this person. It was Steven Spielberg for you. It might be Martin. Scorsese might be Ron Howard might be Edward Zwick. Might be James Cameron or Christopher Nolan.

[00:13:51] It might be anybody that you really like might be one of those more famous ones. Like the names I mentioned might be somebody that is not as famous as those names, but is as good or even better sometimes in your opinion, obviously. Films. When we talk about films, we’re talking about opinion. There’s nothing right and wrong.

[00:14:09] If you like it, it’s good for you. It doesn’t have to be good for me. I don’t have to like what you like. And that’s the obvious thing about films or books. But here, the person said for me, the film director, that means the person who tells the actors what to do. Like we said, Steven Spielberg, Martin, Scorsese, et cetera.

[00:14:27] That is the most important thing for this person, the director. And to be honest, not a lot of people think about it this way. I would have to say that many people just love the movies. They know everything about the movie and the stars, but they don’t know a lot about the director. They don’t care to know a lot about the director.

[00:14:43] Some people, they just care a lot who the director is because they know what this director is capable of. They know that this person, he or she has a very special point of view and a perspective. He, or she shows the movie from, and I’m interested in that maybe that’s you maybe not, but that is also another way or another deciding factor for you to choose this movie or that movie.

[00:15:07] So that being said, I hope you’ve learned a couple of ways to talk about books and films. And as I told you earlier, you can take the link. You can find in the description, go to our website, English plus podcast.com and learn more English. And of course you can decide to become our patron on Patreon, help us grow more, reach more people, and create more content with that being said, this is your host, Danny.

[00:15:28] I would like to thank you very much for listening to another episode from English plus podcast. I will see you next.