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AE 485: 1 Tip to Buy Cheap Books (in Australia)

By pete — 6 months ago
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Learn Australian English in this episode of the Aussie English Podcast where I teach you 1 tip to buy cheap books in Australia.

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AE 485: 1 Tip to Buy Cheap Books (in Australia)

What’s going on, guys?

So today, I was putting together a PDF download, and I’m trying to find a lot of different books that you can get to help you learn English, but also learn about Australian culture, among other things like documentaries, movies, anyway.

The basic idea here for this video is that I wanted to show you how to get cheap books in Australia. So, if you are a bit of a bookworm who likes to buy books online, this is the way that you can find the cheapest option for whatever book it is that you’re looking for. Anyway. Okay.

So, let’s check out the screen here. First thing’s first, I want you to type in Booko into Google, okay. You might need to make sure that Google is Google.com.au, but the website we’re looking for is Booko, BOOKO.com.au. Okay. So, you’ll see it open up here, and you can literally search any kind of book that you want to get, right.

So, one example that I was looking at was a famous book by an author called Tim Winton in Australia and that book is called ‘Cloudstreet’. So, we’ll do a search for that. You can see there’s a few different options here that have come up with Cloudstreet in them, but obviously the first one here is the one we’re looking for.

So, click on that, and then we’ll see that there’s a whole different bunch of editions, right? So, you can get paperback, you can get… what have you got here, ah, MP3 CD, you can get the Kindle edition, and the e-book, all these different options, right? So, you’ll obviously need to find the best option for you. The good thing is prices will be listed for ‘new’ down the side here and ‘used’ down the sign here as well. Okay. And when it was published.

So, if for example, we look at… let’s see if I can find… okay, Cloudstreet, here. Paperback English. Okay. Your standard paperback book. We’ll click on that and you will see, and this is the part that I really like about this Booko website, you will see all of these different stores online listed in order of cheapest, at the top here, to most expensive at the bottom. And the thing that I love about this, aside from obviously showing you the best option for you, from all the different websites online, whether it’s overseas websites, whether it’s in Australia, is that it also shows you delivery and whether or not there’s a fee, and it factors that fee in to the ultimate price. And on top of that, it shows you availability and then total price on the side. Right?

So, you can AbeBooks is selling Tim Winton’s Cloudstreet for only $14.10, 10 cents, and then it is a $1.31. But even with that delivery fee the total is still cheaper than the next best one, which is only $0.06 more from Angus and Robertson for $15.47.

So, this site is awesome. Okay. I really recommend using this site if you guys are looking for books. Once you found the book that you want, once you have found a really good price, sometimes too these prices are quite substantial. The top spot could be $5 or $10 cheaper than at the next point down.

So, you would click them on the website at the top there. It’ll send you directly to where on that website you can get this book. You would then just click add to basket and obviously, whichever website this is, you’ve got to fill out the information required, and then you can buy it.

So, just a short video today, guys, that I wanted to show you for anyone on here who loves buying books.

I might also quickly show you that you can find some pretty obscure things on here. Okay. So, I think, from memory, this website was the one that I got my Portuguese grammar book through. So, it’s not just common novels, right. You’re going to find a whole bunch of really obscure books. So, if you’re looking for things like English grammar. Maybe you will type in ‘English grammar book’ and see what comes up. What have we got here? Central Grammar in Use with Answers.

So, you’ll see a whole bunch of these things come up, English Grammar Workbooks for Dummies. That was actually written by my dad’s friend Geraldine Woods.

So, yeah. Anyway, great website site. I really recommend using this before you’re thinking about getting books, whether it’s from book stores in Australia that you walk into or other sites online, I would really recommend jumping on this website and doing a search just to compare those prices, because quite often you’ll save a little bit of money, especially, if you’re going to a book store in Australia, an actual bookstore, right, a physical bookstore. Quite often their prices will be a little bit above what you can get here and it gets delivered to your door, right, in the mail.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed this video, guys. Hope it was helpful for you. And I would love to know from you what was the last book that you bought online? Tell me about it in a comment below and I’ll tell you soon. See ya!


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    Podcast Episodes Videos vlog

    AE 455 – Vlog: What Happens When You Stop Learning Grammar?

    By Admin — 8 months ago

    Learn Australian English in this vlog episode of the Aussie English Podcast where I talk about what happens when you stop learning grammar.

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    Watch this episode here!


    AE 455 – What Happens When You Stop Learning Grammar?

    What a shit day. Do you know what else’s shit? Grammar.

    What is going on, guys. I’ve come all the way down to Geelong this week to see folks and hang out with one of my mates, James. So, yeah, (I’m) just going to make some coffee. Coffee, coffee, coffee. I got this. This is what you got to resort to sometimes, guys. Oh, look at that! Little chocolate sprinkler. That’s really lame.

    What do you reckon, guys? Is going to be good or is it going to be really, really horrible. Tear here, huh? So, that looks like crap. That looks like absolute crap. Can you see that, guys? Oh, my gosh! What is that? Is that sand? Far out. That is so funny.

    Oh, it’s powdered milk! So, I get it. So, beautiful. Then you mix it in anyway, right? Amazing, amazing. Oh, that’s really hot. Really, really hot. That’s not bad. Not bad. Nestlé instant coffee, guys.

    What is going on, guys? I am out here. Friend’s place. This is my back yard, the garage here. What have we got? The house here and a garden that his parents have really cultivated quite a lot.

    But, I thought I would chat today about grammar, okay, and, I guess, making a push from intermediate to advanced. So, grammar, grammar, grammar, grammar, grammar. Why should you stop focusing on grammar? Why should you let go of studying grammar? And what happens when you do?

    We all know the grammar’s kind of important. Obviously, it’s really important for obvious reasons, in any language, if you want to be clearly understood, you need to have good grammar.

    I guess the point isn’t so much, today, that I want to say that you shouldn’t learn any grammar, but it’s how you go about learning it. So, for a long time, when I was doing French, I was learning grammar out of a book. I would just sit there and do exercises again and again and again, and I wasn’t focusing on a conversation. I wasn’t really using the language as much as I could. And more recently, at least with Portuguese, I’ve kind of done the complete inverse, the complete opposite, where I’ve refused to open any grammar books. I’m not looking up any rules at the moment. I’m just focusing on using the language. I’m just speaking, speaking, speaking. I make so many mistakes. But the interesting thing here is that even though I am making so many more mistakes I’m having, I feel, more complicated conversations, I am using the language a hell of a lot more, and I am not feeling as uncomfortable now when using the language despite, I think, making even more mistakes. So, when I was using French all the time, I would be obsessing over being correct. French has, at least for English speakers, relatively difficult grammar. And so, I wanted to focus on learning that, and I would always think in my head before speaking. I would always be like, “Okay. I want to use this structure. I want to say this certain thing. How do I place this sentence together?”.I would be thinking. I’d be sitting now. I would be trying to say the sentence in my head before I would go out and just say it. And it would lead to a lot of anxiety. It lead to a lot of overthinking when ultimately that interaction that you’re going to have with whoever it is, the native speaker who you’re about to say something to is just not going to care if you get things slightly wrong, if you misplace words, if you conjugate things incorrectly, if you use the wrong noun. Ultimately, what they care about is understanding you, whether you’re correct, or whether you’re incorrect. They just want to communicate, they want to understand what you’re trying to say, and they want to have that, I guess, interaction go well.

    So, that’s the good thing, the good part, at least for me. I would be very anxious and very nervous when wanting to or having to speak with native speakers in French. I would put myself down. I would think my French was horrible when in reality it wasn’t that bad and I could speak much better French in reality than I would let myself speak, because I was always holding myself back stuck in my head.

    So, the complete inverse has occurred with Portuguese now where I am talking, talking, talking, talking with Kel my fiancée all the time now, and I’m incorrect. Probably almost every single sentence that I say there is something that’s incorrect, whether it’s grammar, whether it’s pronunciation, whether it’s word choice, something is incorrect, but I’m communicating and that is the best part about this, right? That’s the whole point that you’re learning English. You’re not learning English to be correct, you’re learning English to communicate, to be able to express your opinions, to be able to understand the opinions of other people, right?

    And so, at the moment, it’s really been interesting. For the last week and a half, two weeks, I have just been focusing on experiencing content… Are you kidding me? It’s started raining. Alright, I’m going to have to get under the cover. Get under cover.

    Alright, for the last… Alright, for the last few weeks, I’ve just been focusing on exposing myself to sentences when I’m training. What I’m actually studying, what I’m doing is, I’m listening to real sentences from real native speakers and I am saying them out loud to work on my pronunciation and also train my brain for those patterns of how these words are constructed in these sentences. So, this is what I would suggest. If you want to learn grammar, this is a different approach, this is a more passive approach, as opposed to active approach. I’m not actively using a book. I’m not actively, systematically going through a book to learn rules and then try and apply them. Instead, I’m just exposing myself to natural language and then trying to use that when I speak.

    One good example the other day was that I was studying in bed with Kel next to me, and in Portuguese, instead of saying… I’m to remember the example. So, instead of saying, “I usually do something”, like “I usually go to the shops”, “I usually have a shower in the morning”, “I usually eat breakfast in the morning”. In stead of, “I usually do something”, which is a structure that we use in English all the time, the Portuguese say, “Eu costumo”, “Eu costumo”, which is like, “I…”, How would you translate that? “I…” and then the verb for like “accustomed”, to do something… It means “to do something usually”.

    Anyway. The structure’s completely different. So, what I did was that I was studying these sentences and quite a few of these sentences used this structure. “Eu costumo andar”. So, “I usually walk”. “Eu costumo ter cafe da manhã as sete horas”. “I usually have breakfast at seven o’clock”. And so… and I remember this now, after doing this, I was doing these sentences, I finished my sort of study of just reading the sentences out loud, thinking about them, saying them, saying them, saying them, and then I turned to Kel, my fiancée, and this is also what’s useful if you have someone who you can speak with, and I said, “I’m going to try and use as many examples as possible of “eu costumo”, “eu costumo”. Can you correct me and tell me if I’m wrong or can you ask me more?”.

    So, that was a really, really good passive way, I feel, of picking up an important part of grammar that I’m going to use too. And that’s another point. When you do this, you focus on it using the language that is important to you and important to your everyday life. You don’t need to learn every single rule in English, because you’re not going to use every single rule in English, at least on a day to day basis. You need to passively be able to understand what’s happening in English, but you don’t necessarily need to know the grammar rules to do that, right?

    So, anyway, that’s what I’ve been doing recently and it’s been so, so, so, freeing. It’s really, really allowed me to stop being so anxious, to stop… Sorry, there’s mosquitoes. Get away from me! …to stop freaking out, to stop being in my head so much, to stop thinking so much, and it’s allowed my language to flow so much more readily when I speak. So, now when I speak with Kel, even after only a week and a half, my language, my Portuguese, has made leaps and bounds ahead of where it was just because I’ve kind of let go. I’m definitely making many, many, many, more mistakes than I was, but I’m also using the language a hell of a lot more than I was and I’m not worrying as much as I was in the past. I’m not in my head freaking out thinking, “Am I going to be wrong? Am I going to look like an idiot?”. I no longer care.

    And this was a really good point too, and something that I wanted to mention. I watched a lecture recently about how polyglots learn languages. So, a polyglot is someone who learns many languages, or at least who can speak many languages. So, these people tend to learn one language for a year or two, and then they’ll switch to another language, and another language, and quite often, you find out that they speak, you know, five, eight, 10, sometimes even 20 languages, guys. It’s ridiculous. And it’s easy for the average person to put them on a pedestal and to think these people are just non-humans who have this special gift for learning languages, but the lecture was showing that that, in fact, isn’t the case. These people have a system, which the system quite often differs, for at least how they like to get started, but towards the, I guess, intermediate to advance area of any language that they’re learning, quite often, they’re all similar in that they make as many mistakes as they can and they don’t care about making mistakes, and they speak as often as they can and focus a lot more on communication. Okay?

    So, I’ve been talking for a bit. It’s kind of just been a stream of thought following my train of thought. I wanted to get this out there and I wanted to ask you guys, how were you learning grammar right now? And maybe, do you think it could be potentially a time or sort of a chance for you to mix things up a bit, to change things and to try something different? So, if you are a bit stuck on where you’re not improving a whole lot, you’re feeling like you don’t have much confidence when you speak, you’re too in your head, maybe this is something that you should focus on. So, try maybe and go out, find a native speaker whether online whether in person in Australia if you’re here, obviously, and just… the next time that you have a chance to talk with them, don’t focus on grammar. Correct yourself. You know, if you make mistakes and you notice those mistakes getting made, correct yourself. And this makes you look smarter by the way. Every time I make a mistake at the moment and I notice it I correct myself and Kel’s always like, “Wow, you know what’s going on! That’s really, really good!”. So, speak as much as you can, use your English, don’t focus on mistakes, aside from maybe counting how many are making and the more you make the better. You know? Give yourself a pat on the back the more mistakes you make.

    Anyway. Let’s have a chat in the comments, guys. I want to know how you’re learning grammar, how you’re learning to improve your English, and what you’re doing at the moment, and what you’ve had success with, and yeah maybe we can talk a bit about this another time as well.

    So, that’s it for today, guys. I’m going to get inside before these mosquitoes eat me alive and I will tell you soon. Peace out.

    Yeah, look at this. (It) rained for like all of 10 seconds.


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    AE 377: How To Improve Your Australian Accent With Candice Moll – Part 1

    By pete — 1 year ago

    Learn Australian English in this episode of The Aussie English Podcast where special guest Candice Moll teaches you how to improve your Australian accent.

    Subscribe to the podcast: iTunes | Android | RSS


    This is part 1 of 2 episodes on how to improve your Australian accent with Candice Moll.

    Make sure you go to Candice’s YouTube channel to watch the video, and don’t forget to hit like and subscribe to her channel!

    You can also check out what Candice is up to via her website at www.CandiceMoll.com.

    Thanks again to Candice for allowing me to use the audio from her videos to help you guys improve your Aussie English accent!

    Keep up the hard work guys!


    Improve your Australian accent when you enroll in The Aussie English Classroom!

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    Expressions Podcast Episodes Transcripts

    AE 266 – Expression: To Scrape The Barrel

    By pete — 2 years ago

    Learn Australian English in this expression episode of Aussie English where I teach you how to use the expression TO SCRAPE THE BARREL.

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    AE 266 – Expression: To Scrape The Barrel

    G’day guys.

    Welcome to this episode of Aussie English.

    It’s Easter so happy Easter to everyone and anyone who’s celebrating this holiday.

    And to everyone who isn’t, well, I hope you have a good long weekend anyway, especially if you are in Australia.

    You get four days off.

    We get Friday, the weekend, and then Monday off.

    So I’m not particularly religious.

    I’m not Christian.

    We still sort of have this cultural celebration as Australians.

    So, Australians aren’t overly Christian.

    I think there is a higher percentage of Christians than say Muslims or Buddhists or Hindus here in Australia, and a lot of Caucasian Australians will be Christian as opposed to any other religion.

    But it’s not a very overbearing part of our society or our culture say compared to America.

    So, Easter for me, at least, is just a time that I see my family.

    I do have Christian members of the family.

    So, they often like getting together and just celebrating the religious side of the holiday.

    But for me and my family, my direct family, my parents and my sister, we love just getting together with them and with other members of the family and our close friends and just hanging out, spending time together, seeing each other, probably eating a little too much chocolate, and a little too many hot cross buns.

    So, that’s part of Easter as well.

    For some reason, I don’t know where it came from, I should probably look it up, but the Easter Bunny is this aspect of our Western Culture with Easter where we get all of these chocolate Easter Bunnies and Easter eggs.

    Go figure.

    Why would a bunny or a rabbit lay an egg?

    Who knows?

    But that’s part of our culture.

    We get a lot of chocolate.

    We share the chocolate.

    We give it to each other as presents.

    I used to get it from my parents.

    I think it was on the Saturday.

    We’d wake up and have, like, a little basket with chocolate in it, my sister and I.

    But for me, I’m much more addicted to the hot cross buns.

    Those things are amazing, amazing, amazing.

    So for anyone here in Australia, go to Baker’s Delight or Brumby’s, you know, your local bakery, and definitely buy some hot cross buns over Easter.

    Put them in the oven for about 12 minutes.

    You know, get them warm and crispy, and then put butter inside of them, and they’re amazing.

    And for those of you who don’t know what hot cross buns is, it’s a small loaf of bread that’s sweet and it has berries and other things in it.

    You can get chocolate-chip hot cross buns now.

    But they’re absolutely amazing you heat them up and you put a bit of butter in them.

    And they’re… I guess they’re kind of like scones, if you know what a scone is.

    But, yeah, check them out.

    They’re amazing.

    Anyway, Happy Easter.

    That’s the intro for today.

    Let’s get into the expression for the day, which is “to scrape the barrel” or “to scrape the bottom of the barrel”.

    So this one comes from Chris, who suggested this in the Aussie English virtual Classroom.

    He was talking about the expressions that he wanted to work on, and I said, “This is a good one. Let’s do it!”.

    So, as usual let’s define the different words in the expression itself.

    So, “to scrape” means to drag or pull a hard or sharp implement across a surface or an object to remove dirt or matter, and it can also be to rub or cause to rub by accident on a rough surface causing injury.

    So, if I scrape my leg on the concrete or on the ground it means that I’ve caused like a scratch on my leg.

    I’ve scraped it.

    I’ve pulled it across the ground and scratched it, scraped up.

    So that’s “to scrape”, to drag across a surface, pretty much.

    “Bottom”.

    Obviously we all know that “bottom” is the opposite of the top of something.

    So, the bottom of something is the thing right at the base.

    So, for instance, if we dive into a pool of water, and we get to the bottom of the pool, we’re on the very very base surface of the pool.

    Whereas, if we come up and we put our head above the water we’re on the top of the pool or at the top of the pool.

    So, bottom, top.

    If you enter a building you’re at the bottom of the building.

    If you climb all the way up the building you’re at the top of the building.

    So the bottom floor, the top floor, the bottom, the top.

    “A barrel”.

    So, “a barrel” is a cylindrical container that sort of bulges out in the middle.

    So, it’s not a straight cylinder, but it curves and is a wider, it’s wider in the middle.

    So, the top of the barrel is narrow, and the bottom of the barrel is narrow, but the middle of the barrel is wide.

    So, it’s traditionally made from wood or what are called “wooden staves”, and it has metal hoops around the wood.

    So, metal rings that go around it to hold them all in place.

    And so, this can be used to store different things.

    You might have wine that’s left in a barrel to mature.

    So, often you’ll see wine in old wooden oak barrels, I think.

    You might have gunpowder left in a barrel.

    You could have say fish and other kinds of foods kept in a barrel.

    They could be kept there to ripen or to be stored for a very long time.

    So, that’s “a barrel”.

    It’s a container that’s used to store something.

    So, the definition of “to scrape the barrel”, “to scrape the barrel”, or “to scrape the bottom of the barrel”.

    So, as in the barrel’s empty, and you’re right at the bottom trying to get the last little bit.

    It means to use something or someone that you don’t necessarily want to use, because nothing else or no one else is available to you.

    So, if you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel it’s like you are at your last choice.

    You have no more options.

    Nothing else is available.

    You’re right at the bottom of the barrel.

    So I imagine leaning over into a barrel that was originally full of food.

    Say it was full of apples.

    And the good apples are at the top and the bad apples, the rotten ones, the ones that have been so crushed, smooshed, under all of the other apples are at the bottom.

    If you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel, so literally dragging your hand or whatever implement you’re using to try and get the last little bit out of the barrel, across the bottom of the barrel.

    So, you’re scraping your hand to try and reach the last little bit.

    You’re only going to get the really really bad apples or the last of what was in the barrel.

    So, you’re scraping the barrel because you’re getting the very very last little bit that is not your first choice.

    You wouldn’t want this.

    You’d want the nice apples that were on the top, but they’re not available.

    The only thing that’s available is what’s at the bottom of the barrel.

    So, because it’s not your first choice, you don’t really want it, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    So, let’s go through some examples as usual guys.

    Examples

    1.

    So, imagine you want to go see a movie, but your friends are busy, most of your family’s busy, and you can’t… you know, you want to go to the film with someone, but you can’t really think of anyone.

    And so your last option, you ring up and you call your grandmother, and you ask her to come to the film with you.

    And the movie is an action film.

    Maybe it’s a James Bond or The Bourne Identity or something like that.

    So, she’s not really keen to see it, but she wants to see you, and you may not be that keen to see your, you know, lovely old grandmother, but you don’t want to go alone.

    So, you ask your grandmother and she decides to come with you, and you could say by asking your grandmother you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    So, you’re scraping the bottom of the barrel by asking your grandmother to come to the movies, because she’s your last choice.

    You don’t really like doing these kinds of activities together.

    You wanted to go with other people that were your first choice, but you were left asking your grandmother.

    So, you’re scraping the barrel.

    You’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    And I guess you could say too that your grandmother is kind of doing this as well because she’s going to a film that she doesn’t want to see.

    So, she wants to see you, but she’s scraping the bottom of the barrel with regards to the film that she’s seeing, ’cause it’s not her first choice.

    It’s her only option though if she wants to see you.

    2.

    Example number two, imagine you going on a road trip around Australia.

    So, you’re going on a road trip and you want to rent a really good van.

    So, quite often backpackers who come to Australia, and other Australians who want to travel around Australia on a road trip, will rent or buy a van, which is kind of like a large car with a lot of room in it, in order to drive around.

    They sleep in it.

    They eat in it.

    They keep all of their stuff in it.

    So, you want to get this van.

    You go and check out a few different van companies.

    So there are companies that actually rent these vans out.

    One of them is called Wicked Vans.

    I think they’re the ones you see with images spray-painted all over them.

    And they tend to be pretty controversial.

    They’ve been in the news I think a few times with like pictures of Hitler and/or penises or weird things on these vans.

    Anyway.

    So, you want to go to Wicked Vans and rent one of these vans.

    And when you go there to check them out you see that all the awesome luxury vans, and you’re like, “Oh man! We’ve got to get one of these luxury vans. I want one of these or some huge vans to take around Australia!”.

    When you discuss your budget with one of the employees who’s renting out these vans you work out that you’re going to have to go a few tiers lower than the luxury van.

    So, you’re going to have to go to the bottom of the options of vans to rent.

    And so, they take you outside to see the van that you’re going to get and it’s a total bomb.

    It’s a wreck.

    It’s pretty much a paddock bomb, which is the kind of… a paddock bomb is a car that is left on a farm to drive around on the farm, but isn’t safe.

    So, this thing is a total bomb.

    It’s a wreck.

    It’s very low quality.

    You wanted something nice to hoon around in, to drive around in, but you’re left with the very very bottom of the barrel, effectively.

    So, it’ll do though.

    You’ve got no other choice.

    You’ve only got enough money to get this bomb.

    So, you could say by settling for this van, the bomb, by being forced to choose this van, you’re scraping the barrel.

    So, it’s your last option.

    It’s your last choice.

    You’d rather something else, something nicer, but you’re going to have to go with this van.

    You’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    By choosing this van you’re scraping the barrel.

    You’re scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    3.

    So, example number three.

    Imagine you’re at high school and you want to go to a disco or a school dance with a girl or a boy.

    But let’s just imagine that you’re a boy though, because it tends to be the boys who do the asking of the girls to these sorts of things a disco or a school dance.

    So, imagine you have in your head the girl that you want to ask to the school dance or the disco, but you keep putting it off.

    You keep delaying it.

    You keep postponing actually asking her to the ball or to the disco, to the school dance.

    So, this chick you’ve got a big crush on.

    You really like her.

    You want to ask her to dance, but you forget, and someone else jumps on the opportunity and asks her to dance, and she says yes, unfortunately.

    She says yes to them.

    So, she’s taken and you’re left having to pick someone else.

    So, you look around and all of a sudden you realise that all of your other options, all of your other choices, have also been asked to the dance, and there’s no one left.

    And so, say you end up having to ask a girl who was not your first choice.

    She was right at the bottom.

    You guys don’t even really get along.

    You don’t know her.

    Maybe you’re not attracted to her.

    She doesn’t like you.

    But neither of you want to go to the dance alone.

    So, you end up deciding, “Alright, we’re going to go together”.

    By choosing that partner, by asking out that chick, that girl, to the dance, to the school dance, to the disco, you’re scraping the barrel.

    So, she’s not your first choice, but there’s no one else available.

    You didn’t want to go with her.

    You’re scraping the bottom of the barrel when you asked her out.

    By choosing her you’re scraping the barrel.

    So, I hope by now guys you get this expression to be scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    As usual, let’s go through a little listen and repeat exercise where this is your opportunity to practice your pronunciation.

    So, listen and repeat after me guys.

    Listen & Repeat:

    To scrape.

    To scrape.

    To scrape the bottom.

    To scrape the bottom.

    To scrape the bottom of the barrel.

    To scrape the bottom of the barrel.

    I was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    You were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    He was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    She was scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    We were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    They were scraping the bottom of the barrel.

    Good job guys.

    So, as usual, I’ll give you a little pronunciation and connected speech sort of point here.

    You’ll notice if you go back and repeat that exercise that I don’t pronounce it as “scraping” I say “scrapin'”, “scrapin’.

    And so, this is common in all forms of English, but it’s particularly pronounced in Australian English by native speakers.

    So, particularly bogans are going to speak this way.

    They’re going to turn that “-ing” on the end of verbs or adjectives, whatever it is, where the “-ing” is into “in'” it’s going to sound like an “in'” sound.

    So, instead of “scraping”, it “scrapin'”, “scrapin'”.

    And it’s actually easier to say.

    So, we’ll go over this exercise one more time, guys, and I want you to try and pay attention to the pronunciation of “-ing” as “in'”.

    Let’s go.

    Listen & Repeat:

    I was scrapin’ the barrel.

    You were scrapin’ the barrel.

    He was scrapin’ the barrel.

    She was scrapin’ the barrel.

    We were scrapin’ the barrel.

    They were scrapin’ the barrel.

    Awesome stuff guys.

    And just to end, I’ve forgotten in the last few episodes, but I’ll do it again in this one.

    A little Australian fact.

    Australia and Papua New Guinea are the only places in the world where you can find monotremes.

    What are monotremes?

    Monotremes are an ancient group of mammals for which there are only several species left, and they include the platypus, the short-beaked echidna, and the long-beaked echidna.

    And the long-beaked echidna used to be found in Australia, but has since gone extinct, and is only found in Papua New Guinea now.

    So these guys are unique because they are mammals that lay eggs.

    Go figure.

    So on that note guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode and I’ll chat to you later.

    All the best.

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