and welcome to this English lesson

where you're going to listen to a conversation about...

- Fall, or the season of autumn.

- Well done. (both laughing)

- So, yeah.

- We had a practice run.

- We did.

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 gonna discuss fall 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 the transition from summer to fall.

- Is that what's happening right now?

- Yes, yes.

This is my optimal season.

- Right, so the transition to change from summer to fall.

And summer has been very hot this year, or at times it has.

Where it's been about 90 degrees, 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 to be outside.

- Yes. - Can you explain?

- Yeah, 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 a few of the warmer beverages and soups

and things that are more hearty and comforting.

- Yeah, start making chilies again,

which we like to eat, don't we?

- Yeah.

- When it's the summer, you don't want to have a hot stove

cooking something like a soup or a chili,

especially over a long time.

- Oh yeah, definitely not.

And I like that.

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?

- The Equinox is when you have equal hours

of daylight and nighttime.

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.

- So, that's coming up pretty soon.

Do you know where the word fall originates from?

- Can I make a guess that's probably wrong?

- Yeah, always. - Okay.

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.

Because there's still parts of the UK

that call it fall.

And there's 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, "nuffing" instead of nothing.

So, that TH sound's going away and you can see on a map

where it originates from the sound of the F, which is London

and how it spread it 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 one in the US

- I 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 with the thee and the thou

and similar words that to me,

sound like they belong in history

and 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.

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.

- There's a massive crate.

I think we've talked about this before.

- Did you just say that in an American accent?

- Fall.

- Oh my gosh.

- I didn't, I said fall.

- Oh.

(both chuckling)

- We try too.

- 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.

Love them all.

- Yeah, and Thanksgiving is in fall, yeah.

'Cause we learned, do you remember when winter starts?

In our winter video and everyone left a comment.

Is it December? - Oh no.

- Was it 15th or 21st.

- I didn't read the comments.

- We've forgotten again.

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.

So, you have enough food for the winter

to survive basically.

And then you celebrate that fact.

But Thanksgiving, obviously has a different spin on it,

which we won't go into

because we made a video on Thanksgiving.

- We did.

- That was our first conversation.

- Was it? - Yeah.

Long time ago.

- Okay.

- Yeah, it was like a pilot episode that we did.

So, I'll leave a link to that one.

But let's start with Halloween.

Halloween is huge in the US.

I am 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.

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 thought so, but at the same time

kids would say, "What is this?

Why are you giving me a beef stick or some carrots

or a pencil or 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.

Have some carrots.

(both laughing)

- Would you like some carrots instead of candy?

- No.

Then we're known as the crazy British guy

who gives out carrots.

But that was before I really understood everything.

Before we had children who could walk to houses

and 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 those 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.

It's exhausting to me.

- Oh 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 part...

- Go hand out your carrots.

- Well, what I mean by that is everyone dresses up,

Parents, children.

- Yes. - Most parents.

- Yes.

- And it's hard to get an outfit

in the week running up to Halloween

because everything's sold out,

which is why you often do it six weeks before.

- I try to come up with the plan 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 these tentacles out of tights.

And I had a whole design with a head piece

and a cape and my tentacles.

And in the end, all I ended up wearing were some tights

that I never had time to stuff.

So, they just kind of hung around me and a wig.

- I thought it looked okay.

- It did, it looked okay but my vision was like...

- Which I mean, it looked good.

- Yeah, oh, thank you.

- It's all right. - Yeah.

- But it's a mad rush, though.

- That's British for amazing.

- Well, good.

Good.

Yeah, so it's just a mad rush

and then Halloween is what I wanted to say though,

is they have block parties with music and dancing

and a really good atmosphere.

So, that's the fun part for me,

not just taking a child to a house,

to another house, to another house

and say, "Don't eat all now."

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 rainy and cold

and they just want to eat the candy

and then they get a sugar rush

and then the next day at school,

you know, as a former teacher,

the day after Halloween was the worst day to teach.

- 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