13 GIU 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. One set of confusing verbs for Spanish learners of English is how to use the verbs lend and borrow. The confusion lies in the fact that in the Spanish language the translation for lend and borrow is prestar for both. To better understand these meanings, we can translate borrow as pedir prestado as well. · Te presto mis gafas de sol, ahora no las necesito. (I’ll lend you my sunglasses, I don’t need them now) · ¿Me prestas tus gafas de sol? (Can I borrow your sunglasses?) So, let’s understand the difference in meaning of the two, starting with lend. Lend is an irregular verb and means to give something to someone, expecting to get it back. Its past simple and participle form is lent. Let’s look at some example sentences: · I lent Carla the book as she really wanted to read it. · He never lends me his pen or pencil in class, even though we’re best friends and he knows that I don’t have one. On the other hand, borrow is a regular verb and means to obtain something from someone, intending to give it back after a short time. Let’s look at how we use borrow considering the previous sentences as our context. · Carla borrowed the book from me because she really wanted to read it. · I can never borrow a pen or pencil from Jimmy because he doesn’t let me. Be careful with the use of lend and borrow in questions. When you give something, you lend it. So, you can ask if someone will lend you something, like this: · Can you lend me the book, please? I really want to read it. Notice that it follows with the object pronoun me. That translates to: ¿Puedes prestarme el libro, por favor? And when you receive something, you borrow it. So, you can ask to borrow something like this: Can I borrow the book please? I really want to read it. Here no object pronoun follows the verb. The Spanish translation is: ¿Me prestas el libro por favor? Let’s finish with a few more examples. Can you lend me the book? Lend me. I don’t have the book, you have it and I’m asking if I can borrow it. Patricia always lends her sister things. Lends her sister. Her sister borrows clothes from Patricia. And finally, if you need financial help with a loan, un préstamo, or a mortgage, una hipoteca, from the bank then these examples would be useful to learn: The bank has lent us the money to buy our house, so now we have a big mortgage. Lent us. With borrow it is: We borrowed the money from the bank to buy our house. (Once again, remember, no object pronoun directly follows borrow). If you would like to study more on this topic then please see the corresponding That’s English! blog post. Thanks for listening! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

16 MAG 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. Today’s podcast is about the intensifiers so and such. Sometimes it’s a little bit confusing to know which one to use so we hope this podcast will clarify the situation. First or all, what do we mean by intensifiers? Listen to these sentences and tell us what the difference is when you hear so and such being used. · I’m happy. · I’m so happy. · It’s a beautiful day. · It’s such a beautiful day. What do so and such do to the sentences? I’m so happy. It’s such a beautiful day. That’s right, they give emphasis to the sentences, making them stronger, they intensify the meaning. Instead of using so and such you could use ‘very’ or ‘really’ instead. I’m very happy, or it is a really beautiful day. Ok, so now we understand why we use so and such and now we’re going to learn how to use them. We use so with adjectives or adverbs on their own. For example,: he is so nice or They’re so intelligent. So is also used with adverbs, for example: she plays the piano so well or that scooter goes so fast So can only be used with a noun, if it is used with the quantifiers much and many. Listen to these sentences: · They earn so much money. · There are so many people in the centre of Madrid today. Remember, so is used before adjectives or adverbs or with much and many before nouns. Let’s listen to some more examples with so. · It’s so cloudy today, I think it could rain. (so before adjective) · They danced so beautifully in the ballet. (so before adverb) · So much time is wasted on social media. (so before quantifier plus noun) · I’ve told you so many times to stop talking in the classroom! (so before quantifier plus noun) Do you remember the sentence He is so nice?. There is no noun, therefore so is used. But in the sentence he is a nice man, as we are using an adjective followed by a noun, then we need to use such because this intensifier modifies nouns. These nouns can be also modified by adjectives. The important thing to understand here is that if there is a noun, we need to use such. Let’s listen to some sentences with such. · It is such a pity that he didn’t get that job. (such before noun) · It was such a fantastic concert! (such before adjective plus noun) · It is such a lovely day, let’s have a picnic in the park. (such before adjective plus noun) · They are such fortunate children. (such before adjective plus noun) In these sentences we have added the noun after the adjective. That means we use such. Let’s do a final recap. Remember, if you are only using the adjective or adverb, you use so, and so is also used if you are using many or much in a sentence with a noun. On the other hand, if the sentence has an adjective followed by a noun, and you want to use an intensifier, then you use such. That’s so easy! It’s such an easy rule to remember, isn’t it?! We are so pleased that you listened to our podcast today. We hope you have such a wonderful day! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

18 APR 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. Today’s podcast explains the difference between the verbs hear and listen, as they are sometimes confused. First of all, let’s check that you know their Spanish translations and definitions. We’ll also hear and listen to some examples to distinguish them. Have you noticed that I have just used both verbs? There are some occasions where either verb is possible. Starting with the verb hear. Hear is the verb oír in Spanish. It is an irregular verb. Both its past and participle form is heard. It has various meanings: It can mean to receive or become conscious of a sound. · She heard a noise outside. It can mean to be told information about something. · Have you heard the news? It can also mean to listen to someone or something with great attention and this is where the confusion lies between its synonym verb, listen. However, hear is more frequently used when it is for a formal event, or also in a court. Listen to these two examples: · An audience gathered to hear him speak. (as in, he gave a formal speech) · The case will be heard by the High Court. The verb to listen is escuchar in Spanish. It is a regular verb so its past tense and participle form is listened. As we have learnt previously, it also means to give attention to someone or something, that’s to say, you pay particular attention to it. Here are some examples: · She is listening to a podcast. · What kind of music do you listen to? · Listen to this! You can win a car just by answering three simple questions. In order to help you understand the difference, think of hear as something which happens to us as a natural process. We hear sounds that come to our ears, without us trying to hear them. Listen, on the other hand, is an action, something that we consciously do, we choose to listen to certain things, you do not usually choose what you hear. Now, let’s listen to some more examples using hear and listen. · I can hear the church bells ring every morning. I don’t particularly want to hear them, but I can. · I hope you’re listening to me! When we listen, we focus on sounds, we choose to hear a specific sound, so I hope you’re paying attention! Finally let’s hear these two examples: · I can hear some music. (coming from somewhere, it’s very faint). · I am listening to some music. In this case I am listening to a song that I want to listen to. Time to go, I can hear my phone vibrating! We hope that helps to understand the difference between the two verbs. Thanks for listening! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

4 APR 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. This podcast is about a set of confusing verbs. They are the verbs rob and steal. We will also deal later with the verb burgle which has a similar meaning, but our main focus is on the verbs rob and steal. As both these verbs mean ‘to take something from someone or somewhere without permission’, llevarse algo de alguien o de un lugar sin permiso, it is sometimes difficult to know which one to use in a sentence. In addition to this, in Spanish there is only one translation, which is the verb robar, so for Spanish learners of English, this simply adds to the confusion. Rob is a regular verb, so its past and participle form is robbed. Steal, on the other hand, is an irregular verb. Its past simple form is stole and its participle form is stolen. So, let’s understand the difference between them. When we use the verb to steal, we are focusing on the object that is taken, NOT the person or the place. Listen to these sentences using steal: · Someone has stolen our car! · He stole my wallet. · He is a known pickpocket [MMP1] and steals people’s money on a regular basis. · The thieves stole the paintings from the museum. The focus in these sentences has been the car, the wallet, the money and the paintings. The verb to rob is slightly different. With this verb the focus is on the person or the place where the object or objects are stolen. Listen to these examples: · An old lady was attacked and robbed in the street yesterday. · The gang robbed the local post office on Tuesday morning. · Our bank was robbed three times last year. In these sentences the focus has been on the old lady, the post office and the bank. We hope that has made it a little clearer for you. Remember, steal is about the object or objects that are taken, whereas rob is about the person or the place. Now let’s touch on nouns that are created from these verbs. The person or people that rob and steal are either called a robber (in plural, robbers) or a thief (thieves in plural, with the ending spelled v e s; it’s an irregular plural, remember). Both translate into Spanish as ladrones. The crime of stealing is called a robbery or theft, un robo. If you remember, we said in the beginning that there was a third verb, burgle. Burgle is a regular verb so its past and participle form is burgled. This verb is used if the theft, el robo, has been from a house. Listen to this sentence: · The house was burgled while the owners were on holiday. The people that burgle are known as burglars and they commit a burglary. We’re almost at the end of this podcast, but before we go, let’s do a final recap on the verbs rob and steal. Listen to these similar sentences using both verbs, so you can distinguish between them: · I was robbed at the nightclub. (the focus is I) · Someone stole my mobile phone. (the focus is the mobile phone) · That poor man has just been robbed. A thief has stolen his bike. (in the first sentence, the focus is the man and in the second, his bike). That’s the end of this podcast. We hope that these verbs are now less confusing for you. Thanks for listening! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now! [MMP1]Pickpocket?

14 MAR 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. One set of confusing verbs for Spanish learners of English is how to use the verbs BRING and TAKE. We use one or the other depending on the spatial location we are referring to. Let’s start with bring. Bring in Spanish is the verb traer. It is an irregular verb. Its past tense and participle form are both brought. Bring means to take or carry someone or something to a place or a person. The movement of the person or object is from where the listener is (for example: ‘Can you bring me my jacket?’) ¿Puedes traerme mi chaqueta? The listener will return the sweater to the speaker’s location. Or, alternatively, it can be from the speaker to the listener as in the example ‘I’ve brought you some flowers.’ Te he traído unas flores. (In this case, the speaker has arrived at the listener’s location). It may help to always bear in mind that with bring the context is always ‘close’, cerca. It is associated with coming to a destination where the speaker or listener is located. Always think of: · Bring that here. Trae eso aquí. The verb take is the opposite to bring. Think therefore of the context being ‘far’, lejos. In Spanish it is the verb llevar. Take is also an irregular verb. Its past tense form is took and its participle form is taken. Take means movement with something or someone from where the speaker or listener is, to a different place, or away from somewhere. Imagine this situation. You are a high school student, and you are at the high school secretary’s office. The assistant tells you: ‘You have to fill in this form and then take it to the Maths Department.’ Tienes que rellenar este formulario y luego llevarlo al Departamento de matemáticas. Both the speaker and the listener are together in a different place to the Maths Department. So, take is associated with going away from a starting point where the speaker or listener are located. Always think of: · Take that there. Lleva eso allí. Let’s do a final recap. Both bring and take are verbs that refer to movement. Bring implies movement towards something, whereas take implies movement away from something. You have to think of the perspective of the context. Bring what you can. Take what you can. In the first example, bring implies you are carrying something with you toward a certain location. In the second example, take implies you are carrying something away from somewhere. We hope you now feel more confident about when to use these two confusing verbs. Thanks for listening! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

29 FEB 2024 · Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. One set of confusing verbs for Spanish learners of English is make and do. The confusion lies in the fact that in the Spanish language there is just the one verb to mean both, hacer, but in English we have make and do. So, what is the difference between make and do? As a general rule, we use make for activities that involve manual work, and do for all the others. Let’s look at some examples using do: We say: Do a course, do a report, do a great job, do business. Do homework, do experiments, do research. As these are relating to work, the verb used tends to be do. Other tasks that use do are when we are referring to household chores: Do housework, do the ironing, do the dishes, do the shopping, do the cleaning etc. Do is also frequently used for some sporting activities like: Do exercise, do Pilates and do gymnastics. So, when do we use the verb make, then? If we are talking about something that we produce or create, then the verb make is generally the verb we use. Let’s take a look at some examples, to understand this a bit better: We make breakfast, make lunch and make dinner. (We are producing something when we cook or prepare food, so we use make in this context, although some English speakers also use do in this case.) Make a profit, make a fortune, make money. You can make a choice, make a mistake, make an excuse, and make an effort. You can also make plans, make a reservation, and make a complaint. While we have looked at the basic difference here between make and do, as you can tell, it is not that easy, as there are too many exceptions to the rule. Our advice is to memorise lists for each verb. And, as you know, practice makes perfect! You can group them into smaller lists per topic to make learning them easier - like those relating to business or housework, for example. Please visit our blog post on make and do to see these lists and their Spanish translation. Thanks for listening! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

15 FEB 2024 · If you are interested in studying English but want to do so in your own time, and perhaps in a more fun way, then the That’s English! course A Tu Ritmo, or as we would say in English ‘at your own pace’, may be just what you’re looking for. So, what exactly is A Tu Ritmo? A Tu Ritmo is a 100% online self-study course giving you access to hundreds of language learning activities on our e-learning platform to help you improve your English. There are no classes and no exams. In A Tu Ritmo you have access to That’s English material to improve your English level the way that you want, you have total flexibility. Whether your level is basic, intermediate or advanced, A Tu Ritmo can provide you with endless exercises, to suit all needs. As well as access to all the interactive online activities, there are other resources available to you, such as podcasts on a wide range of English language learning topics. There are also learning paths which are either skill or vocabulary based. These paths are designed to help you focus on specific grammar points or topic-related vocabulary. Imagine you are going to England for the weekend, and you want to review useful expressions then you may find our Travel learning path useful. In A Tu Ritmo, you will also have access to our drama series, documentaries and travel series, all of which have English subtitles. The drama series are level adapted. For beginners the series Park Hotel follows the day-to day life of the staff and guests in this typically English hotel. For students with a lower intermediate level, in the series Café 27 you will meet lots of different characters who frequent this London coffee shop. The actors come from different English-speaking countries, so it’s a great way for you to become familiar with different accents. For more advanced students the series 12 Penn Road follows the lives of four flatmates that house share in London. After each episode, you’ll find interactive activities related to what you have seen. If you like watching travel programmes we have four interesting English-speaking destinations for you to discover. In Road Trip Katy takes her American friend Sam around the United Kingdom country of Wales in her Mini Cooper. Alternatively, if your preference is to learn more about England, then there are two seasons in our That’s Britain series. In the first season our presenter Nigel takes you on a cultural trip around the UK visiting national parks, coastal regions, museums and famous cities such as Oxford. In the second season, you will accompany Elizabeth as she visits the north of England and Scotland. If, on the other hand, you’re a lover of everything green then you will undoubtedly like That’s Ireland. You will join presenter Aidan as he goes on a cultural journey around the Emerald Isle, visiting Ireland’s iconic places such as Dublin and Galway, as well as being wowed by the country’s wild beauty. Last but not least is That’s the USA. In the first season of this series our presenter Jodi explores the popular south-east regions of Florida and visits many interesting places like Miami, Orlando or St. Augustine. In season 2, Alex takes you to the north-east where he immerses himself in the culture and history of famous cities such as New York, Boston and Philadelphia, amongst others. As with our drama series, there are interactive online activities for you to do on what you have seen in each episode. The A Tu Ritmo course also includes a section of Self tests where you can self-assess your knowledge of the English language, level by level. Finally, on the A Tu Ritmo course, you will have access to our library of podcasts and a selection of posts from the That’s English! blog. The podcast library is divided into the following sections: “Language and Vocabulary”, “Cultural Curiosities” and “Burning Issues”. The transcripts of all the podcasts are also available on the platform. For more information about the A tu ritmo course, visit our website http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact us on 91 108 61 01.

31 GEN 2024 · Did you know that apart from the official That’s English! course, we also offer two other courses?: Exam prep and A Tu Ritmo. This podcast is about the Exam prep course. The Exam Prep course is an online course with a wide range of interactive activities, designed to prepare you to pass the Official School of Languages B2 and C1 English language certificate exams. The course design is based on self-correcting interactive activities, tutored online classes to practice the oral examination tasks and writing tasks which will be individually corrected by your tutor. The interactive contents on our e-learning platform are divided into 3 main sections: Strategies, Extra Practice and Exams. The Strategies section presents, with practical examples and activities, the strategies that will help you to perform well in the different types of exam tasks you will come across in the certificate examination. There are five subsections, one for each of the key learning skills: Reading, Listening, Writing, Speaking and Mediation Strategies The Extra Practice section focuses on practising the strategies that you have learnt in the previous section with activities similar to the tasks that usually appear in the Certificate Examination. Finally, in the Exams section, there are five sets of exams which are similar in format, length and difficulty to the tasks you will encounter when you take the Certificate Examination at your Official School of Languages. So, if you’re planning to take either the B2 or the C1 official English language Certificate Examinations, this is the course for you. So, what are the requirements? You have to turn at least 16 in the year that you register to do the course. You have to reside in the autonomous community in which you are registering for the course. To find out more about this course go to the TE! website http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact us on 91 108 61 01.

18 GEN 2024 · Song Lyrics Podcast Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. We know how music plays a big part in peoples’ lives and that many of you use songs to help you learn English. That’s why the team at That English! have brought to you this podcast about iconic songs and their famous opening lines. Have you ever stopped to think about how important the first line of a song is? Just like an author has to capture the reader’s attention with the first lines of a novel, a songwriter needs to set the scene or mood in just a few words and engage their listener. Here are what we consider to be some great first lines from some even greater songs. Let us know if you agree! "Hey ho, let's go!" !Venga, vamonos!. Not a complicated one to begin with, but without doubt a very apt one to introduce you to our list. For many of you Ramones fans, this simple fist-punching one-liner intro to the song ‘Blitzkrieg Bop’ could not be more memorable. Almost defining American punk rock, its words and beat combined, shout energy and power !Venga, vamonos!. “All the leaves are brown / And the sky is grey.” Todas las hojas son marrones / Y el cielo es gris From the 60s, this song intro was brought to us by the vocal folk-rock band The Mamas & The Papas in their hit ‘California Dreamin’. These evocative lyrics set the scene by describing the season in this melancholy melody as the singers dream of being back in the sunshine state of California. “You were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.“ Trabajabas de camarera en un bar de cócteles The electro-pop pioneers, The Human League, brought us these lyrics from their 1981 hit ‘Don’t You Want Me’ after being inspired by an article in a woman’s magazine. The song is about a man whose cocktail waitress girlfriend no longer wants him, even though he helped get her where she is today. This catchy opening line tells us how the couple first met. The lyrics work so well due to the regular use of the /w/ sound, as you can see in the song’s first line: you were working as a waitress in a cocktail bar.. “Get your motor running / get out on the highway.” Pon tu motor en marcha / sal a la carretera Sometimes described as the first heavy metal song, ‘Born to be Wild’ by Steppenwolf conjured up images of biker rockers, especially after its success in the soundtrack of the 1969 film ‘Easy Rider’ where the ‘going nowhere’ open road was the new American dream. This opening line is about getting on your motorbike, starting the engine and enjoying cruising on the vehicle-free motorway. “Yesterday, all my troubles seemed so far away…” Ayer, todos mis problemas parecían tan lejanos… Before this melancholy Beatles ballad came out, Paul McCartney thought the melody already belonged to someone else. Apparently, he went around singing it with the words ‘Scrambled eggs, oh my baby how I love your legs…’ asking if people knew the tune. Thankfully, nobody did, and he went on to write one of the most popular Beatles songs ever, ‘Yesterday’. About a relationship break-down, the song’s first line starts with McCartney thinking about the previous day and how much better it had been, before the break-up and the problems began. “Birds flying high you know how I feel / Sun in the sky you know how I feel…” Pájaros volando alto sabes cómo me siento / Sol en el cielo sabes cómo me siento... When you start to create a picture in your head of the sun in the sky and flying birds, you naturally start ‘Feeling Good’, don’t you? It’s a very appropriate title for this song by Nina Simone don’t you think? It made her feel good too and we think you’ll agree, it not only made you feel good, it also sounded good - very good. “She keeps her Moet et Chandon / In her pretty cabinet / ‘Let them eat cake’ she says / Just like Marie Antoinette.” Guarda su Moet et Chandon / En su bonito armario / 'Que coman pasteles' dice / Igual que María Antonieta. These famous first lines of ‘Killer Queen’ by the fabulous Freddie Mercury and his band Queen was about a high-class call girl. Freddie glamourised the life of the wealthy kept mistresses and potentially powerful courtesans with their extravagance and indulgence. "At first I was afraid, I was petrified / Kept thinking I could never live without you by my side / But then I spent so many nights thinking how you did me wrong / And I grew strong, and I learned how to get along." Al principio tenía miedo, estaba petrificada / Seguía pensando que nunca podría vivir sin ti a mi lado / Pero luego pasé tantas noches pensando en cómo me hiciste mal / Y me hice fuerte, y aprendí a salir adelante Gloria Gaynor’s disco hit ‘I Will Survive’ is one of the great female empowerment songs of all time. These introductory lyrics express how she was scared in the beginning, doubting how she could live without her partner but later, having realised how much she had been hurt in the relationship, she gained confidence to carry on alone and she survived, thankfully. “And now, the end is here / And so I face the final curtain…” Y ahora, llegó el fin / Y así me enfrento al telón final ... Did you know that this smash hit ‘My Way’ by Frank Sinatra was originally a French song by Claude François called Comme D'Habitude, meaning ‘as usual’. And that both versions had totally different meanings? Claude’s was about routine in a relationship and falling out of love. Songwriter Paul Anka heard the song and paid for rights to rewrite the lyrics specifically for Sinatra. In this timeless anthem, Sinatra sings about the end of a lifetime and looking back on it all. These opening lines refer to the moment when you are faced with the final performance in your career or death and the curtain closing on you for the last time, signifying the end. It spent 75 weeks in the UK’s top 40 singles chart, simply amazing! And this helps us bring this podcast to a close. But you’ll be glad to hear it’s definitely not the end for us. We’ll be back with more very soon. In the meantime, please let us know if you’ve enjoyed this podcast or if you have any favourite opening lyrics to songs that we’ve missed that you’d like to mention. We’d love to hear from you. And finally, just to remind you, why not take a look at our blog entry on the 10 best songs to learn English, we think you’ll like it! We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now!

21 DIC 2023 · Christmas in London Podcast Hello and welcome to this podcast brought to you by That’s English! The Spanish Ministry of Education’s official distance learning English course. To find out more about That’s English! go to http://www.thatsenglish.com or contact your local Official School of Languages. It’s the most wonderful time of the year and if you’re lucky enough to be heading to the UK’s capital to celebrate Christmas, then this podcast is just for you. That’s English! has pulled together these five fabulous festivities of timeless London traditions to help make your yuletide visit a very special one. So, what are our top 5? Let’s begin… No trip to the city would be complete during the festive season without visiting one of its Christmas markets. There will be many all over the city, but the most popular ones are: Leicester Square, the Angel’s Christmas Market at Winter Wonderland and the pop-up Christmas by the River market in Tooley Street. This last one has amazing views of Tower Bridge. All kinds of Christmas novelties can be bought at all the markets, from Christmas tree decorations, food for the season, such as mince pies and mulled wine as well as special handmade gifts for loved ones. Take your pick! Secondly, don’t miss a stroll around the main streets of the capital to see the brilliant displays of twinkling lights that adorn the city. Maybe you’re interested in being there for the grand turning on ceremony, which usually takes place from mid to late November. Oxford Street, Covent Garden and Regent Street are sparkling favourites for many. If you want to see them ALL, and more, then you could book a special seasonal open-top bus tour. The lights really are spectacular! Now a bit of historic tradition for our third recommendation. Every year a very special Christmas tree is displayed at Trafalgar Square. It is usually a Norwegian Spruce that’s over 20 metres tall and between 50 and 60 years old. This tree has been an annual gift from Norway to Britain since 1947, as a thank you for the support Britain gave the Norwegians during the Second World War. This tree is specially selected from forests near Oslo months, and sometimes years, in advance. It is felled every November and brought to London by sea and lorry before being erected and decorated in traditional Norwegian fashion for everyone to enjoy. If you are lucky, you may see the lighting ceremony which, in London, traditionally marks the countdown to Christmas. If it is already lit when you get there, then there are other Trafalgar Square events to look out for such as the blessing of the crib and wonderful carol singing. Our fourth must-do is to experience the great British tradition of a Christmas pantomime. What’s one of those? we hear you say. Well, every yuletide, theatres around the country put on a comical theatre play based on a fairy tale or similar for people young and old alike, involving music, topical jokes, and slapstick comedy. Curiously, every pantomime, or ‘panto’, as they’re fondly known, has an amusing female character, called Widow Twankey, which is actually played by a male actor dressed in women’s clothes. This is definitely one NOT to miss, especially if you want to see something uniquely British. The final must-do is another quintessential English custom, but with a festive twist. If you haven’t tried one of London’s top venues for Afternoon Tea, then you don’t know what you’re missing. This is not just about drinking tea in the afternoon - Afternoon Tea is a meal in itself, often made up of triangular-cut shaped sandwiches along with sweet pastries, little cakes and scones, accompanied with, of course, copious amounts of tea, and often a glass of bubbly – don’t mind if I do! Once an upper-class tradition, it is now a popular pastime used to celebrate a birthday, friends’ reunion, or other special social event. The twist is that at Christmastime, many venues swap the usual egg and cress sandwich filling option for turkey and cranberry - and other such traditional festive fare - in their Christmas themed afternoon teas. Alongside bauble-shaped cinnamon spiced cakes, gingerbreads, and mince pies, get ready to indulge, delicious! These Christmas teas take place in many locations in and around London. We like Ting, Shangri La in the UK’s tallest building, The Shard, and the 1930s luxurious Dorchester Hotel on Park Lane but take a look at all the options and prices and make that booking! These are our top 5 but as there are so many things to do in London at Christmas, whatever you choose, we are sure you’ll have a great time. Don’t forget to let us know what you think. Do you have any recommendations for us? We also have a blog post on Christmas vocabulary that you might be interested in – why not read it?! Merry Christmas from the That’s English! team. We hope you have enjoyed this podcast, brought to you by That's English! Please follow us on social media. We look forward to hearing from you. Bye for now! Glossary Mince pie - a small sweet pastry pie filled with a spicy mixture of small pieces of apple, dried fruit, and nuts, known as mincemeat, which is often eaten at Christmas. Mulled wine - wine heated with added sugar and spices, drunk warm as a traditional winter drink. Crib - a model of the people and animals present at the birth of Jesus Christ, used as a decoration at Christmas. Slapstick - a type of humorous acting in which the actors behave in a silly way, such as by throwing things, falling over, etc. Bubbly – champagne or sparkling wine. Fare - the type of food that is served in a restaurant.