Hello, this is Jack from tofluency.com and welcome to
this English lesson where you're going to listen to a
conversation about. Fall or the season of autumn?
Well done. So yeah, we.
Had a practice run. So this is a conversation where
you're going to just listen to natural English.
So you can do this wherever you're from.
And feel free to go to the description to look up some of
the key phrases. Or if you just want to listen
along and get some exposure to English, that's great too.
So yeah, we're going to discuss 4 today.
We've already talked about summer and winter in the past,
and it's just about to go into fall here in the US.
This is your favorite season? It's my, well, one of my
favorite seasons. I actually really like.
I really like the transition from summer to fall.
Is that what's happening right now?
Yes, yes, this is my optimal season.
Right. So the transition, the change
from summer to fall and summer has been very hot this year, or
at times it has, where it's been about 90° high humidity, which
means it's difficult to go out and do stuff outside unless
you're at a pool or in the shade or by a river.
That's right. Yeah.
So those are the three things that we like to do, shady hikes,
going to visit rivers and waterfalls and a lot of time at
the pool. Yeah, we spent a lot of time at
the pool this summer, and then fall or autumn is a lot easier,
right, To be outside. Yeah.
Can you explain? Yeah, it's, I, I mean, I like
many things about fall that are pretty typical for people to
like. I like the transition to a
cozier season. I like to pull out sweaters and
long boots and to think about, you know, a few of the warmer
beverages and soups and things that are more hearty and
comforting. Yeah, start making chillies
again, which we like to eat, don't we?
Yeah, but you don't. For when it's the summer.
You don't want to have a hot stove cooking something like a
soup or a chilli. Yeah, especially over a long
time. Oh yeah, definitely not.
And, and I like that. I like, I also like this right
now because we still have fruit and vegetables and flowers and
green leaves, but it started to get a little bit cooler at
night. You can tell that the seasons
are about to change and the equinox is coming up this month,
which is the official start of fall.
What's the equinox? It's the equinox is when you
have equal hours of daylight and night time and I think it's at
the end of September. Yeah, 22nd.
That sounds right. Well, the fall starts on the
22nd. Then that's the equinox.
Right. Yeah, yeah.
So that's coming up pretty soon. Did you know where do you know
where the word fall originates from?
Can I make a guess that's probably wrong?
Yeah, OK. Always.
Is it from the leaves falling? Well, that's probably where,
sorry, where it originated from. As in which country?
Have a little think there's no wrong answers.
Is it from the UK? Well, yeah, this is the theory
that I learned while I was doing a live lesson, OK?
Because there's still parts of the UK that call it fall and
there's a a great article where it looks at word usage from the
1950s and now and how things have changed.
For example, the TH sound is going away in London.
Yeah, because that's. Right.
Yeah, nothing. Nothing.
Instead of nothing so that TH sounds going away and you can
see on a map how where it originates from the the sound of
the F which is London and how it's spreading out to the rest
of the country. But in the 50s people were still
saying fall in certain parts of the UK, and the theory is that
they had both terms when the US was colonized, but autumn won in
the UK and fall won in the USI. Wonder about that because I
think that there are some phrases that are pretty common
in the US that you don't use or that sound old fashioned to you.
And then there are some phrases, particularly in the north of
England, like sometimes you still say thee and thou, for
example, that to me. But we don't use articles.
That's true. But just just with the D and the
thou in similar words, that to me sound like they belong in
history, you know, in the time of Shakespeare.
And it's funny to me to hear people use it in everyday
expressions. Yeah.
Could you do an example of a
Northern? Expression.
No, I can't do an impression of you.
You know it it. I want to be able to do a good
impression of you and I think in general I do do decent
impressions, but your accent is very hard for me.
Yeah, it is. So fall, fall, fall.
There's a massive crate. I think we've talked about this
before, say. That in an American accent.
Fall. Oh my gosh.
I didn't. I said fall.
Oh oh. We try to.
Yeah, yeah. So certain other things come
out, don't they? There's certain holidays as well
around fall which you love. I do do.
You want to talk about those a little bit?
Yes. So there's the equinox, which we
don't necessarily celebrate. Some traditions do.
And then there's Halloween, Dia de Los Muertos and Thanksgiving.
Yeah, love them all. Yeah, and Thanksgiving is in
full. Yeah, yes, because we learned.
Do you remember when winter starts in a winter video and
everyone left a comment? Is it December?
Oh no, was it? 15th or.
I didn't. I didn't read the comments.
We've forgotten again, yeah. But yes, Thanksgiving is in fall
as well. And that is probably the fall
holiday in the sense of it comes from other traditions of feast,
the fall harvest and feasting when there's a good fall
harvest, right? So you have enough food for the
winter to survive, basically, And then you celebrate that
fact. But Thanksgiving obviously is a
different, has a different spin on it, which we weren't going to
because we made a video on Thanksgiving.
We did. That was our first conversation.
Why is it? Yeah.
A long time ago. OK.
Yeah, it was like a pilot episode that we did, so I'll
leave a link to that one. OK, but let's start with
Halloween. Halloween is huge in the USI.
I'm always shocked every year just by how big it is and how
early people have to get prepared for.
And two things stand out for me. Go ahead.
Firstly, when I suggested that we don't give out candy, but we
give out something else because everyone gives out candy and the
kids go crazy over it. Yeah.
And what did you say? Do you remember?
No. You said people will come back
and egg your house if you don't leave candy for people.
That might have been me being a little dramatic, yeah.
I I thought so, but at the same time kids would say, why is
this? Why are you giving me a beef
stick or some carrots or a pencil?
Yeah, we're not. Some little toys.
No, If you want to set up around the corner from our house, you
can give away all of those things.
Because what it's like is. You can be like the troll in the
garden. Like have some carrots.
Hey, would you like some carrots instead of candy?
No. Then we're known as the crazy
British guy who gives that carrots.
But that, that was before I really understood everything,
before we had children who could walk to houses and we really, I
really understood things. But it's crazy here.
I can't describe it. It's so different because it's
just a mad rush. The children all have the little
buckets and they go as quickly as possible to houses, get as
much candy as possible. And it's just this mad rush for
about an hour and it's, it's exhausting to me.
Oh yeah. Yeah, but there's also fun
things as well for us. So there's a neighborhood that
have parties, right? I mean trick or treating is fun,
not? For me, really, I like the pot,
so do it. Go hand out your cake.
Well, there's a. What I mean by that is everyone
dresses up, right? Parents.
Children. Yes.
Most parents. Yes.
And it's hard to get an outfit in the week running up to
Halloween because every everything's sold out, which is
why you often do it six weeks before.
I tried to come up with the plan, yeah, six weeks before.
But I mean, I would love to take the time to make our costumes.
And, you know, every year I just run out of time a little bit.
But I think that you can get so creative and do something really
special. But the other year I was a sea
witch and our daughter was a mermaid.
But I had a plan to make like these tentacles out of tights.
And I had a whole, I had a whole design with like a headpiece and
a Cape in my tentacles. And in the end, all I ended up
wearing were like some tights that I never had time to stuff.
So they just kind of hung around me.
And a wig. I thought it looked OK.
It did. It looked it looked OK but my
vision was like. Which I mean, it looked good.
Yeah. Oh, thank you.
That's all right. Yeah, yeah.
But it's it's a mud. Roof that's British for amazing.
Well, good, good. Yeah.
So it's just a mud rush and then Halloween is what?
What I wanted to say though is that they have like block
parties with music and dancing. And a really good atmosphere,
yeah. So that that's the fun part for
me, not like just taking a child to a house, to another house, to
another house and say, don't eat it all now.
Just let's. And then they get home and
they're tired, it's late. It's a school night a lot of
times too. And sometimes it's been raining
and cold and they just want to eat the candy.
And then they get the sugar rush.
And then the next day at school, you know.
As a former teacher, yeah. The day after Halloween was the
worst day to teach. Or or the day of Halloween.
It depends. And I think that I've changed my
opinion on it now that I'm not actively teaching because when
you're in the classroom, you're like, just contain the chaos.
You know, the least fun that we can have is what we want.
That's what we're going for. We're going for calm, collected.
And now that I'm not, you know, actively teaching, I'm like, go
crazy. Well, good, good sugar, huh?
You can also just think, yeah, like they should just send the
kids outside the day after Halloween.
Just run it all off. Yeah.
But I, I just, I don't like that part.
I do not like that part. Of it, the chaos.
No, the just the endless candy, all in the little plastic
wrappers, all small and yeah, yeah, but fun holiday.
All. In all.
And kind of, you know, I think that what's fun about it, too,
is that it's so kind of joyful and wild, but it's also like, a
little bit dark. A lot of people will decorate
their houses with really, you know, scary, scary things like
gravestones and ghosts and witches and just the creepier
the better. Yeah.
But we, the person who used to live in the house that we live
in now, it was known as the best house in the neighborhood
because they had all these decorations, but they didn't
leave them for us. The neighbor got them.
So then they put up all these new decorations and we're
getting there slowly. Yeah, we haven't really gotten
there. They did.
So you can buy giant inflatable decorations for every season
almost. And you know, people will
decorate for the winter holidays.
They'll decorate for Halloween. And you can really decorate your
your house and yard throughout the year.
But probably Halloween and the winter holidays are the biggest
ones, yeah. Oh yeah, definitely.
But yeah, but there was like a giant animatronic spider in our
yard. Top hat as well.
Yeah, maybe like a. Giant thing.
A giant statue with a top hat. Oh yeah.
See, we never got to see it, but everybody will come and knock on
our door, which, you know, we have like 1 Jack O Lantern.
Where's the? Spider.
Oh yeah, we had cobwebs. Do we ever hang them?
I think so. They weren't very good though.
They were small, they weren't fall.
I'm going to do something now, right?
Oh no where. OK, do we're going to talk about
clothing. OK, but talk about the most
important aspect of full clothing and we'll both say it.
No time out. We'll both say it on three.
It's not boots, but just think about a concept with full
clothing, right? What's important?
I feel like I feel like this is a trap. 123 layers.
Cozy layers. Cozy layers.
Everyone wins.
Which is AI. Guess that's a collocation,
right? 2 words that go together
naturally. Yeah.
Pack some cozy layers. Cozy layers?
Yeah, you need layers, right? Especially here in the
mountains, yes, it could be 75° during the day.
And then as soon as the sun goes down, we've been out, haven't
we? And it goes dark earlier.
But I just remember some nights at Zillah KOA, which is a a
brewery here, and we're out and it's T-shirts on.
And then within 10 minutes, you need a jacket, don't you?
Yeah. And also because we're in the
mountains, there are different elevations.
So we're near the Blue Ridge Parkway, which goes through
these mountains, and you can drive up to the Parkway and
drive, you know, 20 minutes, 1/2 an hour.
And you'll be at a different elevation.
And you'll need some cozy layers.
Yeah. It can be 20-30 degrees
difference. Right.
Oh yeah. Yeah, really big difference.
And Even so, a lot of people talk about fall colour and we do
live in an area with a lot of trees that lose their leaves in
the winter, deciduous trees, and before that they turn really
vibrant colours, oranges. Best in the world?
Yeah, so good. People say it's New England.
That's yeah. What do they know up there?
I think, you know, I think that it's, it's we get good fall
colour similar to new. And we can, we can experience it
over two to three weeks because it starts early or mid-october I
think in right at the higher elevations.
I think it might actually be late September.
Or is it early October? Early October.
It's not September speed silly. But no, there's there's actually
a map that tell they'll they'll say all right.
This year. It's going to be early October
at the higher elevations and then the at the lower elevations
that we'll say late October when it's at the peak what what they
called the people who come here. Leaf peepers.
Is it really leaf peepers? Are you sure?
I'm sure. Like to peep?
Like to look? To like look.
Yeah, usually peeping is kind of a.
Creepy. Creepy word.
But yeah, people come to, they'll come to our area for the
weekend and the Parkway's packed.
Isn't it really busy, this famous Rd. where you can see the
the colours and you can see it for miles and you have a
different variety of colour. It's really nice.
People get very slowly, yes. I know the overlooks the park
and you can't park there. Yeah, but it Yeah, people come
here. What?
What they call it again? Full peepers leaf.
Peepers Leaf. Peepers, Yeah.
Are you a? Are you a leaf peeper?
Yeah, Yeah, I am. Yeah.
Are you I? Guess so.
Yeah. And then what happens when the
leaves fall? We'll say on three, 123, 123,
bag them up or put them in compost.
Well, you do, right? I mean, yeah, rake them.
Yeah, bag them up. I wasn't going to get there.
Oh, yeah, you think on your feet a little bit more, but yeah.
So the this is when you have to do a lot of, we call it
gardening, but yard work here. So you rake up the leaves, make
a pile, jump in it. Yeah, dogs and children jump in
there, the leaves. Then you a lot of people put
them in bags and then the city will come and collect them in
trucks. Or you can use them as compost.
Did our compost. We use it this year.
Did you use any? No.
We'll, we'll make sure we use it next year.
OK. But yeah, we have a little
compost bin and then then it's another good time to mulch, to
prune your trees and bushes, right?
Yeah, but I like doing it in fall because it's a lot cooler.
Yeah, summer yard. Works brutal.
Mosquitoes, yeah. Bees.
The Sun.
The humidity. Humidity.
Yeah, so it's nice. The air right now, it's a little
bit crisper, it's more crisp and there's a little bit of a chill
in the air at night. Yeah, chill in the air.
What? What do I say when I come
outside and it's there's a chill in the air and it's not humid?
When did this become a quiz? I say bag them up.
I say it's lovely, it's lovely outside.
It's. Lovely.
Yeah. So if it's lovely outside, it
means it's a good temperature. Yeah.
So it's a good time to do that,
to exercise. I love playing soccer in the
fall. It's the perfect time of year to
do it. But they can.
The mornings can be very crisp, very cool.
Sometimes you can get a little bit of frost in the fall, right?
Yeah. Because yeah, for gardening you
need to know that as well, when it it might freeze.
And then any other things that you like about fall, pumpkin?
Spice, I know I was going to say sorry, I have one.
Well, I have one pumpkin spice latte every fall and I I know
just one you've. Already had one.
Exactly. I'm done.
You're not going to have another.
I'm I'm full on fall, but why do you do that?
If I have another one, it'll be a bonus.
But why do you only have one? I don't.
Know because. It doesn't taste very good, but
you just want to have that whole ride the the the bandwagon of
pumpkin spice. Is that why?
It it is a genuinely good flavour.
But but why don't you only have one?
I don't know, because I'm worried that it could become a
habit. Yeah, it could.
I could just become a complete monster.
Do. You remember last year when you
brought back so many pumpkin spiced items from Trader Joe's?
I'm going to do that. Some of them are better than
others, Some of them are better than others, but I do in
general. I like that that blend of
spices. I think it's probably weighted
to like 80% female, 20% male. And who buys pumpkin spice
lattes? So maybe, maybe pumpkin spice
culture has become gendered, but I truly believe that the the
flavour profile, everyone can enjoy it.
If you like a little cinnamon and nutmeg in your life, you can
enjoy it. It's OK.
Is that what it is? Yeah.
There's anything else in? It maybe like a pinch of cloves.
So yeah, these different spices. Spices.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. And then our birthdays are in
fall, which we we like. We do like that.
Yeah, I've. I remember celebrating my
birthday here and it was really warm.
I said. I've never had a warm, sunny
day, my birthday, my life. But it can be hit and miss.
It could be cold. Yeah.
Near the end of October. It can be.
I think that there's still some, you know, there are still leaves
on the trees, which is so nice because when I was growing up, I
grew up in a more northern state.
And so by the time that my birthday arrived near the end of
October, it was always grey. Yeah, Oh.
Cold. In the UK, October.
It's the rain, it's the rainy season.
And the leaves aren't very colourful.
Yeah, they're just brown. Oh, brown.
And. Then.
They fall and they get really wet straight away.
Yeah, but there's some. Sometimes the weather can ruin
it, can't it? Yeah, yeah.
If it's, I think if it's too, if it has to do with the like dry
and wetness, I think it has to be moist somewhat perfect, like
perfect. Because if it's too dry too
early, all the leaves turn brown and fall off early.
And if it doesn't dry out, I don't know.
Maybe. What are those things?
There has to be some temperature, humidity, because
if it rained and was windy for a week, I imagine a lot of the
leaves would just fall. So yeah, we're not.
We're not going to turn cooler this year.
We're out. Yeah, this is perfect for us to
disintegrate and turn into rich soil.
Oh wow, what compost? Compost.
Let's go in a bag. True.
OK, Well, I hope you've enjoyed this lesson.
I think we should end it there. OK, because we've done a
Thanksgiving lesson. Yes, yeah.
And you should definitely go and watch the summer, Thanksgiving
and the winter conversations after this one.
Hmm. Yeah.
Hmm. And then be sure to go to the
description to look at some of the key phrases from this
lesson. Hmm.
What else should they do? Please question.
Ohh my question what is your favorite fall ritual?
So it could be a food or an item of clothing or something that
you do outside, but to celebrate the changing seasons or.
Holidays like do you have this season in terms of like the
temperature in case mind is blown I'm.
Just thinking of Costa Rica, yeah.
You know, doesn't really change that much, I guess, except for
rainy season, but yeah. And the Southern Hemisphere.
It's they're going into their spring, yeah.
It's about to be spring. OK.
So yeah, just like if you have fall or whatever, what other
seasons do you celebrate the most there?
And yeah, click the like button, subscribe if you are new and as
always there, Yeah, check out the other lessons.
And one more thing, one more thing, we actually chose this
topic based on somebody recommending that we talk about
seasons. And so if there are other topics
that you're interested in US talking about, we'd love to
know. Yeah, and expand on it too to
say, oh, we'd love to know about someone said hospitals, right,
OK, just like, oh, what talk about a typical hospital
experience for, you know, a surgery or something like that.
OK, yeah, Oh yeah, the more specific the better.
Yeah, it just helps us think about it a bit more, isn't it?
Yeah. OK.
Thanks again. Speak to you soon.
Bye. Bye.