Splash Into Summer Part 1: Are You a Beach Bum?

This is an All-Ears English Podcast Episode 2661. Splash into summer, Part 1. Are you a beach bum? Welcome to the All-Ears English Podcast, downloaded more than 200 million times. Are you feeling stuck with your English? We'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection, not perfection. With your American host, Michelle Kaplan, the New York Radio Girl, and Aubrey Carter, the Isles Wiz, coming to you from Arizona and New York City, USA. What are your summer plans? Are you going to spend any time on the beach? Today, we share fun phrases for connecting about summer activities. Have you ever walked away from a conversation thinking, "Wait, what did they just say?" Native speakers speak fast. They interrupt, they use slang. They don't speak textbook English. If you sometimes feel one step behind, you're not alone and you're not incapable. You just need targeted listening training. The first step, find out your exact level and where the breakdown is happening. Take our quick free fluency quiz at allearsenglish.com/fluencyscore. Again, that's allearsenglish.com/fluencyscore. Hey, Michelle, how are you today? Hi, Aubrey. It is getting warmer. I am excited. Everything is good. I hope you're doing well. Yes, I am. This is the hottest part of the summer, but we are spending a lot of time in the pool. We've got to the beach. And we are so excited to bring you this splash into summer series here at Allearsenglish. We're sharing a few of our best episodes that are packed with phrases to help you connect in English this summer. That's right. So today, you are going to hear the first episode in this really fun summer series with amazing summertime expressions. All right. Are we ready for the episode? Yes. All right. Enjoy. Hello, Michelle. How you doing? Are you feeling summery? I am. Oh my gosh. You know how much I complain about the cold, Lindsay. You've pointed it out before. What is actually your favorite season, Michelle? Would you say it's winter, summer, spring, fall? It's a good question. I guess I'm going to have to go with the month of. Maybe the month of May. Can I choose one month? Sure. You could choose the question. Okay. No, May is a really nice month. I really like May and October. I like October too, because it's crisp. You know, it's really nice. It's like cooling down, but it's not too cold some days maybe, and you're like, "Ooh, a sweater." And then by the time you pass to October, you're like, "Oh, no." Yeah. I also like it because it's like cool leather jacket weather. You know what I mean? You can wear your leather jacket. You don't have to be in like a, you know, puffy, awful jacket, and you're not in a t-shirt. Yeah. You're not in a t-shirt suit. Right, exactly. That's how I always feel. When I was little, I had, well, a teenager, I had like, it was a puffy, silver, you know, one of those. And I just felt like an astronaut. That's true. Winter clothing is not. I don't know if it's really that fashionable, but I don't even know fashion to be honest. So maybe we should get off that topic. Never mind. Yeah, so. So, but do you have a favorite season? Or are we just going with those two months for the two months? Ooh, maybe the fall. Ah, no, I'm gonna say summer. Because just because the possibilities are endless in the summer, you can travel abroad, you can stay home, you can do pretty much anything. It's also sometimes lighter work-wise. Like, we try to take it easy in the summer. So I'd say summer is my favorite season. Yeah. Yeah. I'd say, okay, our overall, I'll agree with you, but I do get very hot anyway. You do. I don't like to be too hot, and I don't like to be too cold. Yeah, true, true. So, but today, well, we're approaching July 4th already. I know, and I know, Lindsay, this is your favorite holiday. I know this about you, right? You're loving Fourth of July. Of course, I know. After seven years, you should remember by now. I know. I do love it. I love it. In case you guys haven't heard, I love it because it's so simple. It doesn't require buying any gifts, doesn't require any politics of the family. Who's going to go where? No flights unless you want it to be. You could just go to the beach, have a barbecue, backyard, sandals, hot dogs, hamburgers, ideal. Yeah. Yeah. You're right about that, because it's not necessarily, like some holidays are like family holidays. We're like, it's thought of to be the family, and you have to figure it out. And if you have a partner, you have to have that conversation. Yeah. Like, where are you going? And that can be tricky. So Fourth of July is more like, all right, like we could be with friends. We could be with family. It's less pressure. Yeah, but you usually have the day off. Obviously, it's a holiday. It's a national holiday. If it falls during a week. And so everyone just, it's just simple. I like things that are simple. Yeah. I hear you. I definitely hear you on that. So, yeah. Soon. It is Fourth of July. And we are in summer now. So we've been doing, you know, these, some, these season series. And it started in the winter, in the winter, right? It was a 1711, ugly sweaters and stocking stuffers. Right. This is the only use in winter. And this was because we had done a YouTube series. Right. We realized that to call someone a scrooge. Like, that's not something you really say in the summer. Right? So we decided to do this series. Yeah, it would just be, it would just be weird. Like, there are certain things that you generally say only in certain seasons. And we realized that. So we went ahead, so that was 1711. And in the spring, we did 1763, which was springtime love and English expressions. So today, in honor of July 4th coming up, we are going to do summer. I love it. And again, I mean, yeah, these words that we're going to show you today, guys, you probably shouldn't say them in the winter. So we're going to say that it's kind of, it's because the words we choose come from a mindset that we have. Right? And that mindset is usually based on the seasons. So that's why this is perfect. Exactly. Exactly. So some of these are kind of funny. I realize the summer ones are kind of silly. Especially this first one. I like this. I know. Should we get into it? Yeah, let's get into it. So the first one, guys, is BeachBod. Now, I feel like I remember using the word "bod" more when I was like a teenager, like commenting on guys, like cute guys, models, you know what I mean? In magazines. What is "bod" short for? "Bod" is short for "body." So if you have a BeachBod, it means you have a body for the beach, right? Maybe if you're a guy, you have a six pack. Or we say a six pack, which means you want the shell, bonus for today. It's like, it's the six pack maps. Exactly. But actually, I guess people do start talking about this BeachBod. I need to get my BeachBod ready before people start wearing. Yeah, even in the office with your colleagues, you might, I mean, don't bring it up, wait until you hear it. But some of your colleagues closer to you might say, "Oh, I don't have a BeachBod yet, so I wanted to go to that party. I got invited to, but I can't." Things like that, right? Yeah. And it's interesting. I wonder if this is going to get phased out because as we focus more on things like body positivity, you know, it might. Yeah, good point. Like, you know, just kind of being, you know, not so critical of, you know, how people's bodies look. I wonder if like, saying things like, BeachBod is going to start to sound kind of like old-fashioned. I already think it's starting to sound a little 90s, I would say. Uh-huh. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But it is important to know. So body is, yeah, body shortened sometimes to BOD. So that's kind of fun. Oh my gosh. I'm sorry. When something stressful happens at work, do you know how to talk about it in English without sounding too dramatic or too robotic? On our Business English podcast next week in episode 601, we'll show you natural phrases to describe stressful situations to share what happened and connect with your co-workers through the experience. Because handling pressure at work isn't only about finding the perfect words, it's about sounding human and building stronger relationships in English. Search for Business English and hit the follow button now. See you there. My phone is always ringing these days. It's crazy. All right. Oh, what's the next one? No. I think it's spam calls actually. I don't know what it is. Oh, oh, that's a problem. That's how that is. Yeah. Okay. Anyway, the next one is BeachBum. Yeah. So what would that be? Who's a BeachBum? I think a BeachBum is like somebody who really likes to spend a lot of time at the beach, right? Yeah. Yeah. Huh? Yeah. Yeah. So would you say you're a BeachBum? Like do you spend a lot of time at the beach? No. I am so well. First of all, I don't live in a landlocked state. First of all. Right. That's true. What does that mean? What does that mean? Landlocked. Yeah, that's a great expression. A state or country, right? Yeah. That does not have access to the water. Yes. So we think about different countries. Like Bolivia comes to mind. It's landlocked. It's right in the middle. There's no ocean. lotion line, right? Yeah, Colorado's landlocked. And even if I were living in mass or California, now I wouldn't be a beach bum. What about you, Michelle? Are you? No, no, no. Okay. Okay. We've, I think we've talked about this before. So I knew your answer. It's funny. I ask you a lot of questions. And you know, I often know your answer. We've been talking these days. But we've been talking, well, we've been talking so many years. We know a lot. It's true. Yeah. So beach bum. Yeah, no, I am not a beach bum. I prefer, I know, I prefer like walking on the boardwalk. I like to be on the boardwalk. That's fun. Going to places like the Jersey Shore. Yeah. It'll be a good time. But I don't like, I'm not, I'm not, like when I think of beach bum, I think of somebody like feed in the sand all day long. Yes. Yeah. And I can't. Yeah. I can't do it. Yeah. It's true. You walk past people on the beach and they've got these dark, dark tans. Yeah. And they've just been there all day. And you think, oh, it looks painful. If I do that, I need to be under an umbrella. You know, I just don't want to have my son that, but my skin that exposed to the sun. I just feel like I'm going to regret it someday if I do. Yeah. Exactly. Exactly. So the next thing is work on my tan. So Lizzy, are you someone who tries to get a good tan? Which I'll, I used to be. I would say that I used to be and I even made the mistake. This is going to date me and this is a little embarrassing. I even made the mistake a few times of going tanning when I was in high school. Oh, I would like to us along. A tanning bed. Yeah. It was before we knew how bad it was, but maybe I still had a hunch that it was very weird. It was like 97, 98. And my friend Emma and I, she convinced me to go, you know, her mom was going all the time and we got the goggles. We went a few times, but you stand there and you just like look up at the, or you just like let the lights come on your, on your skin. I don't have you ever been tanning? I've never been to like a tanning bed, but I have been spray tanning. Oh, geez. Okay. Yeah. Just spray tan. So that's not much better, Lindsay. Isn't there a funny episode of friends? Is it friends? Oh, yeah. That's a good one. I was hoping you might say that. Yes. Yeah. That is the only episode of friends my mom has ever left out. Left at? Are you? Did your mom not have his end to humor? No, my mom has an amazing sense of you. Okay. It's not funny enough for her. Yeah. She just like doesn't find it funny. And as a kid, I mean, if she saw this, she would laugh. Like as a kid, I would get so excited about friends. And I would be like, I would be looking for the episode that will finally like get my mom to be a fan. And we would just we would just watch it. And I would be like laughing. And I would always look over at her to see if she was laughing. And she'd just be like, interesting, interesting. Okay. There's a high bar. Okay. She's a high bar. Yes. That episode got her into this day. Like even just a couple of weeks ago, we were talking about it. So yeah. If you guys don't know what we're talking about, is it Ross or is it Chandler? It's Ross. Right. He goes to get tan, spray tan. And he just stands in the same place for too long. He gets confused about the instructions. And he ends up getting like super heavy tan. Really, really dark. Yeah. That makes me never want to get a spray tan. That's for sure. Yeah. It's not, I don't know. I didn't it didn't I I really, you know, because, you know, in high school and everything, people that want to work on their tan and this and that. And I would always, you know, I'm rather pale. I didn't notice. And I would always want to be tan. And I don't know. Then I learned to embrace the paleness because I've seen myself with a spray tan and I've seen myself when I get even a little bit of color. It's not it doesn't fit. You know, like you're meant to be. That makes sense. That makes sense. They're in love. And that's one of the gifts of getting older, honestly, is, you know, regardless of the trends. I didn't need you to point that out. Yeah. Yeah. You knew that already, right? You knew that. Yeah. We can start to embrace ourselves. Absolutely. I love that idea. Yes. Okay. Thanks. It's because I'm old. No, I'm just joking. Oh, Michelle. Come on. Don't worry. I'm always going to be older. So don't worry. Okay. So the last one we're going to teach is summer fling. Yes. Okay. So do you think that summer flings are ever a good idea? Oh, first of all, what is a summer fling? It's like a quick relationship that usually like it's not very realistic. That okay. Continue. Maybe it's in a, maybe you're traveling or, you know, I don't know, I'm putting up a cruise or just like I'm working at a summer camp together or something like that. It's just like a fling. You can use fling for other times of the year, but summer fling, it's like in that song from Greece. Yeah. Summer fling. Yes. Yes. Yeah. Generally, I don't think they work out. But I'm sure there are some. What do you think? There's some examples of some, I think it's fun. I think summer has a certain, and we can see it in these words. Summer has a certain lightness to it, a lack of seriousness, right? I think in people's minds like between Memorial Day and Labor Day, that's when you can kind of just goof off and have fun. But as soon as Labor Day comes around, it's like even in the economy, the stock market, people pull out of their stocks in the summer, right? And then they go back in in the fall. And so it's shown everywhere. We just kind of loosen up and relax. So yeah, summer flings can be fun, but don't necessarily expect it to be something that's going to turn into. Yeah. I also think of like if you're a lifeguard at a pool, maybe someone else who's lifeguarding, that kind of thing, that kind of summer job fling, right? Yeah. Right. Oh, yeah. Lifeguard. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. So guys, these are expressions that you will most likely talk about either slightly before the summer or during the summer, but you're probably not going to be talking about summer flings unless you're telling a story about the summer. When it's when it's snowing, probably not. Oh, yeah. Unless you're going back to let me tell you about my summer fling last summer, right? That kind of thing. Right. Yeah. Exactly. So should we do a roleplay? Yeah. Let's do it. All right. So we are going to the beach. Oh, geez. Okay. All right. I can't wait to get out there and work on my tan. Yeah. But don't get a sunburn. I'll sit for a bit, but I'm not really much of a beach bum. So I'll probably spend some time playing games on the boardwalk. Yeah. Tracy's coming too. And she won't stop talking about her summer flings beach bod. Oh, boy. I'll be sure to take a walk for that discussion. Haha. All right. Nice. So yeah, typical. We're getting ready to go to the beach. Michelle, do you think that you could ever live in a place like California more of a beach culture? Could you ever live like in Santa Monica or on the coast, you know, Laguna Beach? I think maybe because I think there's still like a lot of nice things there. There we are. Yeah. I don't know. It's so well. I will say that when I, you know, when I do visit beach towns, even like the Jersey Shore, I have this moment where I'm like, should I be living on the beach? Like it's so my, but so relaxing. Sometimes I think, like, if life could feel a little bit simpler or something like that. And then I always start looking up real estate and then things get complicated, right? And then I think, and then I think like maybe it could do like a month in the summer or something like that. But then I just, um, I think it's one of those things when you're there, when you're there, it seems like, oh, wow. But if I were to, I don't know if I could do it in your round. Yeah. I know what you mean. It's something about the smell of the salt water, right? In the air, the salt air is really, really healing and relaxing for the body, the hair. It just feels great. But yeah, I'm not sure if I would necessarily want to live full time at the beach, but yeah. Who knows? Maybe another lifetime, right? Who knows? Maybe, maybe. Anyway, guys, well, let's go through this. So I said, uh, so you said, I can't wait to get out there and work on my tan. Very common, right? Work on my tan. Again, that right there is a chunk. You're going to hear this from your colleagues on a Friday before a summer weekend, right? Work on my tan. Okay, really common, guys. And then I'm not really much of a beach bomb is what I said, meaning I don't spend an entire day at the beach. I have to do other things, right? Exactly. Exactly. And then I said, she won't, you said she won't stop talking about her summer flings beach bod, right? So this person, she has a fling with this person's body. Yeah. And they're six pack, maybe. Exactly. If you guys are on the app, you're going to be able to see this in the transcripts. I could see how this little chunk could be a little confusing because we're combining two of the key word, right? Key words. So summer flings that person's beach bod. Okay. So just to be clear, guys, um, good as stuff. Any takeaway for listeners today? Should they go out and just have a crazy summer? Have a great summer. Have a great time and enjoy and these, you know, listen for these expressions and yeah, enjoy the enjoy a good weather. All right. Good stuff. Enjoy it, guys. Happy summer. Happy summer. Bye. Bye. All right. So my favorite expression from this episode is definitely beach bomb. So my favorite summertime activity is being a beach bomb hanging out all day on the beach playing in the waves, building sandcastles with my kids playing sand volleyball and spike ball. That's my favorite sand volleyball and spike ball is all I want to do when I'm on the beach. It's so fun. Although, I will say that I will say that I am practicing these phrases, but that is actually not true. Oh, that's so funny. Listeners are like, is that true? Yeah, they're like a group. We part you probably talked about the beach before, but Aubrey, for example, sentences for Michelle. All of that is true for me. I love sports on the beach hanging out on the beach and we hope that you guys are able to be a beach bomb this summer and maybe have a summer fleeing. That was another fun for this from this episode. But But like Michelle said in the roleplay, don't get a sunburn. Use sunscreen every way. That's right, be careful and also be sure to hit follow to get the rest of this splash into summer series. All right, see you next time. (upbeat music) Thanks for listening to All Ears English. Would you like to know your English level? Take our two minute quiz, go to allhearsenglish.com, forward slash fluency score. And if you believe in connection, not perfection, then hit subscribe now to make sure you don't miss anything. See you next time. (upbeat music) (upbeat music)