Welcome to this special Christmas edition of Ze English Podcast! This month, Sue and Lawrence dive into one of Britain’s most mysterious festive traditions: the Christmas pudding. Sue reveals her granny’s secret recipe — a recipe so old-fashioned it takes three days, a lot of stirring, a Christmas wish, and even something called suet (don’t panic, we explain everything).
If you love good food — and we know you do — get ready for spices, brandy, Guinness, a bit of chaos, and plenty of Christmas cheer.
Let’s get into Stage 1… before Sue runs out of time!
This week, on the last Thursday of November, is Thanksgiving day. For this special occasion we have a bonus edition taken from the archive in company with our dearly missed former colleague Regina, who talks us through the meaning and mood music that accompanies what is one of the most popular holidays in the American calendar.
In today’s episode, we speak with our colleague Floyd in Jamaica, which was directly hit by Hurricane Melissa about three weeks ago. Floyd tells us what daily life has been like since the storm, describes the damage in his hometown of Montego Bay, and explains how people are slowly rebuilding with courage and determination.
France is the land of butter, cheese, and steak tartare — so it’s no surprise that only about 2% of the French actually call themselves vegetarian.
Across the Channel, more than 15% of adults in the UK now follow some kind of meat-free diet. In today’s episode, Hazel tells us why it's important to her and how she has handled raising her children as vegetarians.
La langue française évolue au fil des années pour s’adapter aux enjeux de demain. L’ idée du langage inclusif est de rendre la langue plus égalitaire. Mais tout le monde n’est pas d’accord. Alors, découvrons pourquoi avec Emilie, notre collègue qui explique ce phénomène, son impact et la controverse qu'il a suscitée.
Ciao e benvenuti alla primissima puntata della nuova stagione del podcast ECSPLICITE, in cui discutiamo di un argomento comune a tutte le lingue e culture. Le nostre colleghe Giulia e Alessia approfondiscono il tema dell'uso del linguaggio neutro dal punto di vista del genere in italiano, la sua importanza, le difficoltà pratiche che incontra e i modi per evitare il linguaggio di genere.
In den letzten Jahren in Deutschland gab es viele kreative Ideen, wie man geschlechtsgerechter und weniger diskriminierend sprechen kann – vor allem wenn man über Gruppen spricht, die gemischt oder nicht genau definiert sind oder wenn man über Minderheiten jeglicher Art redet.
Heute, zum Start der neuen Saison, befasst sich unsere Kollegin Bianca mit dem Thema „inklusive Sprache”, seiner Bedeutung und natürlich auch den damit verbundenen Problemen.
Lo normal sería pensar que las nuevas generaciones utilicen más el lenguaje Inclusivo y que las personas mayores no, pero la realidad es muy diferente. Su uso no se divide por generaciones, sino por ideologías.
Nuestro colega Guillermo profundiza en el tema y comparte sus opiniones sobre lo que significa utilizar un lenguaje inclusivo, por qué es importante y, inevitablemente, los problemas que plantea.
To celebrate the 4th season of ECSPLICITE podcasting we have chosen a topic about language, culture and society and is relevant to all the languages we train : Inclusive language.
Our world is changing and the language we use along with it. We asked our South African colleague Deonne, currently living and working in Korea, to share her ideas about what it means to use inclusive language in South Africa, why it is important and inevitably the problems it raises.
To celebrate this final episode in this season and to anticipate the summer, we have added a companion piece to our last episode about the association Les Minots de l'Hosto at the Children's Hospital in La Timone in Marseille, as we talk to the school's director Benjamin, who's going to tell us all about the school and its collaboration with the association we support.
Here's the link again for anyone wishing to donate to this worthy cause.
In today's episode we come to the children's hospital in Marseille, La Timone, to support the Association Les Minots de l'Hosto and the amazing work they do organising after-school care & extra-curricular activities for the child patients.
We talk to children and teachers who inspired us with their upbeat, bright and cheerful attitude to their environment and treatment.
This episode is dedicated to the mums and dads we met and their daily fortitude in adversity.
To support the charity: https://www.lesminotsdelhosto.org/nous-soutenir
As Republicans and Trump supporters in particular celebrate the first 100 days of the the new Trump administration, we travel to Texas to talk to our colleague Evelyne, French born naturalised American, who's been living in Houston for many years, as she shares her thoughts and feelings about the present as well as her hopes and fears for the future in the new reality that is Trump's version of America First.
Today we're talking about the thought-provoking Netflix series Adolescence, which in only four short weeks since its release has been viewed in millions of homes in 70 different countries, and sparked serious public debate as well as political reactions, with the UK Prime Minister himself talking about it in the media. So what is all the fuss about. We asked our colleague Sophie, who was recently recommended the series by a close friend, to give us her take on this mini-series sensation.
Today our podcast is about social media and its effect on our children, toddlers, teenagers or young adults. Colleagues Sue and Mireille share experiences about dealing with the impact of social media on the family and family life and how to handle things when influencers affect habits and behaviour in their children.
Are you a 'baby boomer', a millennial perhaps, or maybe a recently graduated "gen Z". And why does it even matter? Our guest contributor this month, Inger, is going to take a quick, fun dive into the quirks, facts, and history of people from different generations and share her own feelings about what makes the generational gap so, well ... engaging !
Welcome to the first episode of the year.
Today's subject is maternity leave and the work life balance, as we hear from Sophie, our colleague, who having just experienced maternity leave, came back to work recently and had to strike a new balance in her life with two children and, of course, a career.
The sentences fell this morning in the Mazan rape trial that has shocked the nation and dramatically shifted the way France is talking about rape, rapists and their victims.
Today in conversation Sue & Sandra honour the heroine at the centre of this traumatic story : Gisèle Pelicot, who braved public scrutiny to make sure that shame swapped sides.
Sue mentions a tribune in the newspaper Libération.
https://www.liberation.fr/idees-et-debats/tribunes/proces-des-viols-de-mazan-plus-de-200-hommes-signent-une-feuille-de-route-contre-la-domination-masculine-20240921_TXUFM4QHOVAD7BOALPIKBKD6HE/
This week's podcast, where Sus is in conversation with William, is about the YouTuber Inoxtag who has made a movie called Kaizen, all about his ascension of Everest and what has happened since. It's an extraordinary thing to watch, particularly if you have no interest in YouTubers; so listen up, and, like Sue, you might just be surprised.
With less than 3 weeks to go before the election in the US, we talk again to Jonathan our British expat living in Cincinnati, just down the road from Springfield Ohio, about the succession of amazing events since we last spoke six months ago and we explore different scenarios in the event of Republican or Democrat victory.
Oasis, the famous British rock band, have announced a UK comeback tour for 2025. The announcement has been met with both enthusiasm & criticism about ticketing from fans and press speculation about the motivation behind their revival fifteen years after they disbanded amid acrimony. Today we check in with Cyril, himself a musician, who tells us about the band and their music and why he for one is looking forward to their return.