Hello, and welcome to Luke’s English Podcast. This episode is in 3 parts: Part 1 – I’m going to talk about what I’ve been doing recently, and I’m going to talk about the Present Perfect Continuous Tense Part 2 – This is the feature section which is about dating & relationships. I’m going to play you a BBC TV comedy sketch about a blind date. Part 3 – I’m going to teach you some of the most common words and expressions that English people use when they talk about dating & relationships.
Part 1 – What have you been up to? A typical conversation between friends who haven’t seen each other for a while would be like this: A: Hi, how’s it going? (Hi, how are you?) B: Fine thanks, you? A: Not bad. What have you been up to? B: Not much. I’ve been working hard recently. Work is really busy at the moment…
So, we use this question to ask about recent activities: “What have you been up to?” or “What have you been doing?” ‘up to’ – means ‘do’ or ‘doing’. The tense here is the Present Perfect Continuous tense: have/has + been + -ing This tense is used in the question and answer: “What have you been doing recently?” “I’ve been working hard” It’s very common for people to use this when they see their friends. E.g. “Hi Luke, what have you been up to?” -I’ve been teaching a legal English course recently -I’ve been playing football in Regents Park -I’ve been enjoying the good weather -I’ve been looking forward to the new Star Trek movie -I’ve been listening to a lot of funk music -I’ve been on a couple of dates recently (Present Perfect Simple tense)
Part 2 – Here’s the transcript of the comedy sketch: Woman: I’m really glad Lisa set us up together Man: Me too Woman: I normally hate it when friends pair you off with complete strangers Man; Yeah Woman: Thing is… all the guys I’ve been out with recently have been unbelievably stupid… I think you’re different though… well, touch wood! [she knocks on the table] Man: [thinking it is the front door] Sorry, that’ll be the door… [he walks to the front door] Woman: Good…
Part 3 – Useful expressions for talking about relationships & dating To flirt with someone: When you like a boy or girl, you act in a way which shows that you like them. E.g. girls will laugh at a boy’s jokes, she might play with her hair, she might smile at him a lot, she might touch him on the arm and laugh… When a boy flirts with a girl he might try to make her laugh or show her how strong he is. To fancy someone: This means that you think someone is attractive. E.g. “I really fancy Jane! I think she’s really good looking.” To chat someone up: This is when you talk to someone to make them fancy you. E.g. when a man sees a nice woman in a bar, he might chat her up by asking her if she wants a drink. “Would you like a drink? Do you come here often? You’ve got beautiful eyes…” To go out with someone: This has 2 meanings. 1 – It means that you go on a date with someone. 2 – It means you are someone’s boyfriend/girlfriend. E.g. “We’ve been going out with each other for 2 years. We’re getting married next year.” To ask someone out: This means to ask someone to go on a date. “Would you like to have dinner with me on Friday?” -he asked her out. To have chemistry: This means there is a natural magic feeling between people who fancy each other. Chemistry is very important in a relationship. To fall for someone: This means to fall in love with someone To drift apart: This is when a relationship goes bad. You drift apart when you become interested in different things, and you don’t enjoy being with each other any more. It means that you slowly become bored with your partner. To split up with someone: This means that the relationship finished. E.g. “Brad Pitt and Jennifer Anniston split up with each other a couple of years ago” To dump someone: This means that you leave your partner and end the relationship. E.g. “She’s really sad because he dumped her. He told her that he didn’t love her any more and that he didn’t want to see her again…”
OK, so that’s it! Those are really useful expressions for talking about dating. Don’t forget to email me if you have any questions or comments. luketeacher@hotmail.com Bye for now!
p.s. here’s the comedy sketch on YouTube: The TV show is called Man Stroke Woman (BBC)
TRANSCRIPT TO 8. DATING & RELATIONSHIPS
Hello, welcome to Luke’s English Podcast. Thank you very much for listening and downloading. Um… I’ve been getting various messages from people. Um… Basically saying that they love the podcast and some people are using it just to learn English when they are, for example, driving to work, or travelling on the bus, or on the underground, and some people are teachers who are using the podcasts in their English lessons. So, I’m happy about that, very glad that it’s becoming so popular. Um, you can, of course, find this podcast on iTunes. If you go to the iTunes Store, you can do a search for Luke’s English podcast and you will find it there and you can subscribe to the podcast using iTunes there. And also, you can leave a short review of the podcast on that page. Um… and I’ve had couple of ratings but I haven’t had any reviews yet. So, please leave a review saying how brilliant the podcast is, okay? I mean, I’d like you to say how brilliant it is of course so that way I can get more listeners, yeh? You don’t have to say it is brilliant. I mean you can be honest, for example, and say ‘I think it’s quite good but I found some of the episodes are a bit too long these days’ or something like that. Or you can say ‘I think it’s very useful but the problem is Luke doesn’t write a transcript for the episodes. It would be better if there is a transcript,’ something like that. Just write a comment, leave a message. I’d like this to be an interactive podcast. So the more messages you send me, the better. So you can leave a review on my iTunes page or you can send me an e-mail by teacherLuke… no, it’s luketeacher@hotmail.com.
Now, in today’s podcast, first of all, I’m just going to tell you what I’ve been doing recently. So I’m going to give you an update on things that I’ve been doing. And, when I talk about that, I am going to be telling you as well about the present perfect continuous tense and how useful that can be when you are talking about recent news, okay? So, the first part would be little bit about my recent news and the present perfect continuous tense. Then, in the feature section, you are going to listen to a small comedy sketch about a date, okay? And then in the language section at the end of the podcast, I’m going to teach you some really really really useful and very important expressions that you can use to talk about dating and relationship, okay?
[3’08” Jingle playing]
Right, so what have I been up to recently? What have I been doing? Well, I’m going to tell you in a second. But before I do that, I’m going to teach you something really useful about English, some really useful and important language, okay? Now when you see your friends, for example, if you haven’t seen your friends for a week or two, in English, it’s very very common to say something like: ‘What have you been up to?’ or ‘What have you been doing?’ Right? ‘What have you been up to?’ or ‘What have you been doing?’ And those questions are about your recent activities, okay? Maybe since the last time you met. So, a common conversation might be something like:
A: Hi, How’s it going?
B: Fine. Thanks. You?
A: Not bad. What have you been up to?
B: Well, …[and then you talk about what you’ve been up to.]
Okay? So that’s ‘Hi, How’s it going.’ ‘How’s it going’ is another way of saying ‘how are you’.
A: How’s it going?
B: Fine. Thanks. You?
A: Not bad. What have you been up to? [‘Up to’ means ‘doing’ actually.]
B: Well, nothing. [Very common for people to say nothing. ]
‘What have you been up to?’
‘Well, nothing.’ [Nothing really or nothing special.]
But sometimes, you know, you can talk about the things that you have been doing. Right? And when we talk about recent news like that, we often use the present perfect continuous tense or sometimes the present perfect tense. Okay? So, the present perfect continuous tense is structured like this, we have ‘have’ or ‘has’ + ‘been’ and then an ‘-ing’ form. For example, ‘I’ve been teaching English’ Right? Or, ‘I’ve been playing a lot of football recently.’ Yeah? I’ve been doing something. And we use that form in the question as well, ‘What have you been doing recently.’ Yeah? So, for example, if you ask me: ‘Hi, Luke. How’s it going?’ And I’d say: ‘I’m fine. Thanks.’ And you’d say: ‘What’ve you been up to recently?’ Well, I’d say: