Magic Tom: Hi! I'm Magic Tom, the producer for Sam & Ted's Famous Last Words. Welcome to the Babbel Sound studio where we're sitting in on an American and a Brit twisting each other's words, getting tongue tied and generally reflecting upon the strange beauty of that majestic, rather odd thing we call the English language. Let's start the show!

Sam: Goodly morrow to thee, squire Ted.

Ted: Huh?

Sam: I said, goodly morrow… You know, like, “good morning”.

Ted: Have you been reading Shakespeare again, Sam? Where I’m from we just say, "hi".

Sam: Ah, things are so simple in the New World, right? Actually we usually say "hi" in the UK too, or sometimes “alright love?” Anyway, moving on, what are we discussing today, Ted?

Ted: Well Sam, if I said “floccinaucinihilipilification” to you, would that give you a clue?

Sam: That would probably give me a headache, Ted. That is a really long word. What does it mean and why are you saying it to me? I mean, is it even English?

Ted: Of course it's English, Sam. It means… “The action or habit of estimating something as worthless”.

Sam: Rubbish! I mean, you know like saying something is rubbish. Is that what you mean?

Ted: Yeh. 

Sam: So, like being generally super critical about everything. Don’t you have maybe something positive to say, Ted? I mean, what are we gonna talk about today?

Ted: Well, um… I thought we could start with a little challenge today. I’m going to spell out some really long words, you’re going to write them down, and then try to pronounce them correctly. And listeners, if you like, err you can join along with us, so, grab a pen and see if you can get the answer before Sam! I’ve decided to call this segment:

Longwinded Ted!

Sam: Longwinded, Ted?

Ted: Yeah, you know – if something’s "longwinded" it means it’s unnecessarily long.

Sam: Oh right, yeh yeh. Like the speech my dad gave at my sister’s wedding…

Ted: Maybe… alright… um, something like that! Anyway… Have you ever felt like you didn’t want the Church of England to be dissolved, Sam?

Sam: By "dissolved" I suppose you mean brought to an end, right? And um, well, no I, I can’t say that I have, Ted. Why do you ask?

Ted: Well, if you had answered “yes”, you’d be a follower of , get your pens ready “a-n-t-i-d-i-s-e-s-t-a-b-l-i-s-h-m-e-n-t-a-r-i-a-n-i-s-m”.

Sam: Oof, that’s err 28 letters, right? Um… and I'm guessing you pronounce that "antidisestablishmentarianism", "antidisestablishmentarianism". 

Ted: Right, yeh, perfect! Good job!

Sam: Ooof… So, what does that actually mean? I mean, to be "anti" something means you're against it, right?

Ted: Right, that's right.

Sam: And "to disestablish" is the opposite of "to establish"?

Ted: Good, yeh…

Sam: So, "antidisestablishmentarianism" means to be against the "disestablishment" of, what…?

Ted: The Church of England.

Sam: Oh right yeh, ok. Yeh, yeh. So, getting rid of the Church of England? Um, couldn’t I just say “I’d like to keep the Church of England around”?

Ted: I suppose, but that would be too easy, wouldn’t it?

Sam: Well there’s definitely nothing easy about “disestablishmentarianism” or “antidisestablishmentarianism” as far as I can see. Um, I guess that's why the Church of England still exists. Um, ok, what’s next?

Ted: Check this one out: “E-u-o-u-a-e”.

Sam: Err, ok… E-u-o-u-a-e? It's sounds a bit painful to be honest. And if I’m not mistaken that’s only six letters. Isn’t this a segment about long words, Ted?

Ted: Hey! You can count! There might be only six letters, but they are all vowels! It’s the longest word in English that has no consonants! Now say it!

Sam: Um, ok… err, "eurr-ay-eurr-ey"?! No consonants – it's very difficult!

Ted: One more try, I wanna hear it. One more time!

Sam: "eyy-u-o-oo-ehy"?! "eyy-oo-eh"?! Is that right?

Ted: This is how you pronounce it: "Euouae". 

Sam: "Euouae" – it sounds like something that Yoda would say!

Ted: "Euouae" – yeh, a little bit!

Ted: Exactly!

Sam: What do all these vowels mean, Ted, please?

Ted: Well, "Euouae" was used in medieval times as a memory aid to help monks remember the sequence of tones in Gregorian chants.

Sam: Ooo, I do love a good chant, Ted. You know I’m in a choir, right?

Ted: I do know that, yeh.

Sam: Hmm – doesn't seem particularly useful though, does it? Um, I mean, it's pretty specific.

Ted: Right, and a little bit dated. But, I’ve got one more for you, and this one is actually quite practical!

Sam: Really.

Ted: So, now, I'm going to spell the longest English word in common usage. Sam, are you ready?

Sam: Yep.

Ted: Listeners at home, are you ready? Alright, it is… "i-n-c-o-m-p-r-e-h-e-n-s-i-b-i-l-i-t-i-e-s".

Sam: Ok, ok, that's, "i-n-c-o-m-p-r-e-h-e-n-s-i-b-i-l-i-t-i-e-s", right?

Ted: Right.

Sam: It's, "incomprehensibilities". Well I know what that means! It describes things that are impossible to understand. Which is quite appropriate, right, if you think about it this segment. So, moving on to something that we can understand, hopefully – what’s up next, Ted?

Ted: So now we have a guest.

Sam: Cool. How exciting! Who is it?

Ted: Well this week our special celebrity guest is a celebrated Colombian linguist…

Sam: Oh wow, is it, it's not you-know-who?

Ted: Who?

Sam: You know, um that singer. What's her, what's her name, um... Shakira! She speaks seven languages, right?

Ted: I believe so, but no, Sam, we didn’t get Shakira for our podcast. Our guest will be talking about his favorite music though.

Sam: Ok, so it’s neither Shakira… and it's not Ricky Martin, is it?

Ted: Err, Ricky Martin isn’t Colombian, Sam.

Sam: Oh well I give up – stop keeping me in suspense.

Ted: Keeping you in what? Suspenders?

Sam: Suspense, Ted! A state of tense excitement! I mean, just stop being mysterious will you. Tell me who it is!

Ted: Alright, this week, our very special guest is Babbel language hero… Johnny Goodsman!

Sam: Johnny Who? Err, oh, is that the guy who fixes the coffee machine?

Ted: No, Sam. He’s a leading light in our Business2Business team. And according to his profile, he speaks Spanish, French, Portuguese, Hebrew, Turkish… and of course, English!

Sam: Oh him, yeh yeh I know him. He did a voiceover for our advanced English course on Gender and Identity.

Ted: Exactly. So without further ado… here’s Johnny! Johnny Goodsman, welcome to the studio.

Johnny: Um, it’s actually Guzman.

Ted: Excuse me?

Johnny: My surname is Guzman, not Goodsman.

Ted: Um, where’s that from, then?

Johnny: Um, I think it’s actually the name of a Spanish village.

Ted: But you’re Colombian, right?

Johnny: Si!

Sam: Um, Johnny, err I have a little question… Um, I've been listening to your accent, and um, I swear that you’re from Manchester. You’re English is perfect, but where did you pick up a Manchester accent?

Johnny: I actually do have a lot of friends from Manchester, and I've spent quite a bit of time there.

Sam: You must be a quite good mimic.

Johnny: Yeh, I always like characters. I like doing characters, and so I remember people, and, like, try mimicking them.

Ted: Speaking of mimicry, Johnny, I’ve heard it on the grapevine, that is I heard a rumor, that you had some kind of habit that really helped you while you were learning English. Could you explain it to us and to our listeners?

Johnny: Yeh, so when I was growing up, I loved listening to English language music. The first English language CD that I got was Oops!…I Did It Again by Britney Spears.

Sam: Wow, that's a classic. That's a classic of the genre. Did you understand all the lyrics you were listening to? I mean, how did that work?

Johnny: Funny that you ask, because actually with that CD I used to listen to the songs and I was able to memorize the sound, but I, I just, I didn't entirely know what they meant. I'd try deciphering them but obviously I didn't speak English very well when I was ten. I only understood a part of it, and then years later, when my English was better, I remember all the sounds and I suddenly understood the songs, and I was like: oh my God, she really did do it again!

Ted: Nice surprise for you there!

Sam: I mean that's quite something to have Britney Spears as your first English teacher, I think! Um, are there any particular lyrics that stand out from Britney or anyone else, or any songs that you listen to again and again, like some examples?

Johnny: Yeh obviously like, that song that I just mentioned, Oops!…I Did It Again, Stronger, like all that album I used to listen to on repeat. There was this one song about this girl that is looking in the mirror, and at some point she says, "and the girl in the mirror is me", and five years later, I'm [like}: oh my God, plot twist!

Sam: Did you sing them in your bedroom?

Johnny: I sang them in the shower, on the way to school.

Sam: This for, for our listeners, this is a great thing to do. And I think we've all done it at some point, but it does really help you practice speaking words out loud.

Ted: And like, err, Johnny said, even if you don't understand the, the meaning behind these lyrics, a lot of times it helps you with your, your grammar, your syntax, err vocabulary of course…

Sam: In songs you hear unusal phrasings.

Johnny: I can really relate to that because I found myself knowing all these weird words that I couldn't really use to describe buying things at a supermarket…

Sam: But I guess when your English gets to a higher level then you can start peppering your sentences and, um, impress native speakers with your wide breadth of English vocabulary.

Um, Johnny, I've got here that Guns N' Roses was one of your favorite bands at one point.

Johnny: Well, that's a bit of an overstatement. I used to like three of the songs.

Sam: Guns N' Roses was my first concert.

Ted: Really?!

Sam: Wembley Stadium, Guns N' Roses, yeh!

Ted: I would never had thought that…!

Sam: Yeh, yeh, yeh, it was amazing, it was amazing. There was a beer can fight before we even got into the stadium.

Ted: Sounds like a Guns N' Roses concert!

Sam: Yeh it was crazy. Yeh it was great! 

Um… err… I have to admit, Ted, Johnny, I have to confess I have a terrible habit.

Ted: Yeh, you leave the toilet seat up!

Sam: I do not! That's not true! No, no, it's something else. And, um, it's something that my mother also does. I think I got it from her actually. When I'm having a conversation with someone, right, I sometimes break into song. I just can't help it. It's not that I'm like upbeat and really super positive all the time. Err, it's just that certain words and phrases set me off because I associate them strongly with song lyrics.

Ted: For example?

Sam: Well, um, one of the worst ones is err "Happy Birthday". Whenever anyone says 'Happy Birthday', I immediately get the song Happy Birthday by Stevie Wonder in my head.

Ted: Ahh, ok, so not the original one.

Sam: It's like: "Happy Birthday, to you…" You know that one, right? Yeh, yeh, yeh, yeh. 

Ted: Ok, yeh, yeh, alright!

Sam: It's… and I often start singing it. Um, and the same thing happens when someone says "Congratulations". Immediately, Cliff Richard leaps into my mind: "Congratulations and celebrations, I want … daa di daa di daa," so like that. It either starts playing in my head or, even worse, I start singing it out loud. These songs are terrible earworms.

Ted: You got earworms? Err, it sounds like you should go to the doctor, Sam.

Sam: Ted, don’t be silly Ted. An earworm is a song you can’t get out of your head.

Ted: Yeh, I knew that. Any others?

Sam: Hmm, it’s not quite the same thing, but when I meet someone who's particularly grumpy, I start singing Happy Talk under my breath.

Ted: Happy Talk, what is Happy Talk?

Sam: It’s a song from the musical South Pacific – and the singer in this song is basically telling someone to cheer up. So when I encounter someone who's very negative, singing this song under my breath helps me cope with their negativity. It's very useful actually, yeh. What about you, Ted?

Ted: Well, I’m trying to learn French… it's going kinda, kinda going a little bit slowly. Um, but, whenever I hear the phrase, um “Qu’est-ce que c’est?”, I immediately start singing Psycho Killer by The Talking Heads. "Psycho Killer, Qu'est-ce que c'est? Ba ba ba baaa, ba ba ba ba baaa ba…" Exactly, yeh!

Sam: Yeh, that's, that's great. That's a really great karaoke number as well.

Ted: So, that, that comes up a lot.

Sam: What about you, Johnny G? Any English phrases that get you going?

Johnny: When you say, "I must confess I have a terrible habit…", Britney came back to me… "I must confess that my loneliness is killing me now…"!

Sam: Back to Britney!

Johnny you are clearly a great fan of English language music, pop music. You know your stuff! So, Ted and I were thinking, we'd test your knowledge of English song lyrics. We want to know if you can tell us from which songs the following popular phrases come. You know, phrases that people often reference, um, but you might not know that they come from songs. Sound good?

Johnny: Err… ok.

Ted: It’s a pop quiz!

Alright, here we go!

Sam: Johnny. Are you ready?

Johnny: Yeh, yeh alright!

Ted: Ok, here's the first one, here's the first one. It's pretty easy. Ok, the phrase is: "The times they are a' changin'".  

Johnny: Yeh, it sounds familiar, but I don't know who sings it.

Sam: You give up?

Johnny: Yeh, I give up.

Sam: Yeh, this one is from Bob Dylan. 

Johnny: Bob Dylan, ah ok.

Sam: Yeh, and the song is The Times They Are A' Changin'.

Sam: Ted, what's our second?

Ted: I think you'll love this one.

Sam: This is one of my personal favourites.

Ted: "You are beautiful, no matter what they say". 

Johnny: Ahh, that's Christina.

Ted: There we go! Woooo!

Sam: Christina Aguilera!

Johnny: Agui-lera.

Sam: Aguilera. Aguilera.

Ted: Thank you. Alright! Um, ok, the next one:

"Girls just wanna have fun".

Johnny: Oh yeh, karaoke song! Um, is that Cyndi, Cyndi Lauper?

Sam: Yeh!

Ted: Yeh! Alright! This one is one that you might hear at funerals, it's super popular at funerals.

Johnny: At funerals…

Sam: Yeh, yeh. I've been to at least two funerals where this was played.

Ted: Ok. And it's, err… : "My way".

Johnny: "My way"?

Ted: Saying something like…

Sam: "I did it my way".

Ted: "I did it my way".

Johnny: Oh, oh, oh, ooo. No… Ted, why don't you sing it?

Ted: I don't know this one…

Sam: Yeh, I don't think singing it would help at this point in time.

Ted: No!

Sam: But it's by Frank Sinatra. Actually, there is "I did it my way" which is from the song, and there's also the phrase, "It's my way or the highway".

Ted: Alright.

Sam: Which means, yeh, yeh, yeh. Which means err you either do what I say, or you walk off down the street and go somewhere else. What we call an ultimatum.

Johnny: Alright, I like that.

Sam: Err, another one?

Ted: Ok! "Four seasons in one day".

Sam: You know this one. 

Johnny: Ah yeh, I know that one. Err, it's Crowded House.

Sam: Yay! Exactly. "Four seasons in one day" being a day with good weather, bad weather. You get snow, sun, rain, hail, everything, in one go. And I think our last example.

Ted: We have one more example.

Johnny: Alright.

Sam: Prepare yourself. 

Ted: And this is good just life advice. Something to keep in mind in your life, all the time. "You can't always get what you want". 

Johnny: "You can't always get what you wa-ant"… Who sings that again? Is that? No, w-w-wait. Is that…?

Sam: Just for those people at home, I'm now mimicking the artist.

Johnny: Oh…

Ted: Right, stick those lips out.

Johnny: Give me, give me the first letter.

Ted: "R"…

Johnny: "R", oh… is it a band, or is it, is it…?

Sam: Yeh it's a band, yeh, one of the most famous English bands of all time.

Johnny: It's not the Rolling Stones is it?

Sam: Yeh! It's the Rolling Stones! Mick Jagger famously sung, "You can't always get what you want". And, people say it all the time, yep.

Ted: Yeh, so, a lot of these phrases, these are phrases that they may come from the song and have been made popular by the song. But it's also a two-way street. Sometimes these are phrases that existed before and the song has just kinda made them more popular and that we kind of think about these phrases more in connection with these songs.

Sam: Yeh, that's right. And we also have band names that come from common idioms, um, phrases and acronyms. Err, like, again the Rolling Stones. I think you can tell us where the Rolling Stones got their name from?

Ted: Yeh, sure! So, the "Rolling Stones" is a piece of an old proverb or saying, um, and the whole thing is "a rolling stone gathers no moss".

Sam: Which is a very famous English proverb.

Ted: Right, ok, so "moss", um, of course is this green stuff that you find growing on trees or rocks, and things like that…

Sam: On things that don't move, generally…

Ted: Right, exactly. So, what this basically means, um, there are kind of two meanings. There is the original meaning, um, and that was people who are always moving, err, with no roots in one place, or another, they avoid responsibilities and cares. But, a more common modern meaning, is that a person has to stay active, um, to avoid stagnation.

Sam: What is stagnation?

Ted: "Stagnation" means not moving forward in your life, not progressing, not achieving anything.

Sam: So, it's, it's sort of encouraging people to change and to learn and to grow?

Ted: Right, exactly.

Sam: Um, instead of staying still and getting dull and boring.

Ted: Right.

Sam: Super. Another one?

Ted: Yeh, I've got another one. So earlier I mentioned, um, the Talking Heads.

Sam: Another great band.

Ted: The, the Talking Heads, um, "talking heads" is a phrase that we use, um, to describe people who appear on, um, TV shows, and often on the news, for example if they have, you know, a correspondent in the field, or, or something like this. A lot of times you see the frame of the TV as just kind of just from the shoulders up. 

Sam: Mmm.

Ted: And that's a "talking head", usually giving their opinion about something, or, um, taking part in some kind of debate or discussion.

Sam: Yeh, so it's an expert who's on TV, giving their opinion about something.

Ted: Right.

Sam: Right, yeh, super. And, err, another example is, um, a very famous band again, Led Zeppelin. Where did this come from, Ted?

Ted: Um, well, back when the band was first forming, they didn't have a name yet. Um, someone else in the music scene heard about it and said, ah they're going to go down like a lead balloon. 

Sam: Which isn't a very nice thing to say about someone, is it.

Ted: Right, no, not exactly.

Sam: So, a "lead balloon", you know this is a, a sort of, a thing that, err, is kind of impossible, or, err, unsuccessful…

Ted: Right, lead being a metal…

Sam: Very heavy metal, and a balloon being something that should float.

Ted: Right.

Sam: Um, so it's a, it's a, an unsuccessful thing, like a chocolate frying pan, you might say.

Ted: Right, exactly.

Sam: Yeh.

Ted: So, the band heard about this and they took it a step further, and decided to call themselves, Led Zeppelin. 

Sam: A Zeppelin is a giant balloon basically.

Ted: Right.

Sam: Yeh, yeh, yeh. Very clever.

Ted: Alright, very good.

Sam: Um, yeh, so, super. Um, thank you, Johnny, for joining us in the studio.

Johnny: Thanks for having me!

Sam: You're very welcome. Um, come back sometime! Err, yeh, what's, what's up now, Ted?

Ted: Alright, Sam. So, we're a few episodes in now, and, you know, we need to keep things fresh and funky. So, I think we need some more ideas for new segments. And I know that you have a few ideas bouncing around in the old noggin. 

Sam: Bouncing around in my what?! Err, head, you mean. B-bouncing around in my head. Um, right, I didn't know Americans used 'noggin'. 

Ted: Yeh, sure we do! So, why don't you err spitball some ideas for me.

Sam: I really don’t think it would be either appropriate or hygienic for me to spit in the sound studio.

Ted: No, Sam. I, I don't want you to spit, I want you to 'spitball ideas'. It means, err… to brainstorm, to come up with ideas, and just to say whatever comes into your head – no judgement. It doesn't matter if it's a good idea, bad idea. You're just trying to get them out in the open.

Sam: Ok, yeh, yeh, yeh. Get my juices flowing.

Ted: I… um…

Sam: Have some ideas…

Ted: Right, yes, ok!

Sam: Yeh, yeh… I can do that, I can do that – sure!

Ted: Yeh!

Sam: But this does sound like a segment in itself, Ted.

Ted: Sure, yeh, we can call it the “Sam suggests segments” segment.

Sam: That's very, very s-sibilant…

Ted: Yes!

Sam: …I would say.

Ted: Yes, sibiliant – containing lots of 's' sounds.

Sam: 'S', 's', 's', 's', 's'…

Ted: Alright!

Sam: Lovely! Prepare yourself for some sophisticated wordplay, Ted. I'll try to go slowly so you can keep up. What about Grammaticool? You get it? So, like, making grammar great again, 'innit! Like, you know, for the kids.

Ted, wake up, wake up! Ok, ok, alright, you didn't love that idea, I don't blame you. What about Two Intense? So, Two Intense, you know, like…

Ted: Ok, yeh…

Sam: …there's two of us and we're talking about our favorite English verb tenses.

Ted: That sounds intense alright.

Sam: Intense – yeh, you know like…

Ted: …a little bit too intense, Sam.

Sam: Ok, ok, alright, forget it then! I've got a much better one, and actually this came from Magic Tom, and it is Booze or Lose?

Ted: 'Booze', like, like alcohol?

Sam: Yeh, yeh, like, or 'Lose', like, 'not to win'.

Ted: Ok.

Sam: The opposite of 'win', 'lose'. 

Ted: Alright, and what's the segment about?

Sam: This is a very interesting segment, and it basically focuses on busting the British myth that drinking helps you speak a foreign language.

Ted: You want to bust this myth?

Sam: Err, yeh, you know, it's like…

Ted: Isn't it something that we…

Sam: …disprove like, like, it's not true that if you get drunk you can speak French better.

Ted: Alright, I'm, I'm a fan of this one.

Sam: Yeh, ok!

Ted: We can try this one.

Sam: Well this is just, just discussion topic… ok, so, ok…

Ted: Let's, let's table this one…

Sam: Anyway, I've got some…

Ted: …come back to it later

Sam: Ok, you like this one, great, ok. Another idea I have is Spooky Spoonerisms.

Ted: Is it, like, just talking about spoons?

Sam: No, spoons have nothing to do with this. This comes from a man who was called 'Spooner', …

Ted: Ok. 

Sam: …and who had a tendency of messing his words up. 

Ted: Ok.

Sam: Um, supposedly had bad eyesight, I think?

Ted: Alright.

Sam: Um, and he would say things like, "The Lord is a shoving leapoard", instead of, "The Lord is a loving shepherd". 

Ted: Ah, ok.

Sam: And so, so it basically it means sort of swapping around the first letters of two words and you end up with a funny phrase.

Ted: Oh, ok!

Sam: And this could be on purpose, this could be accidental. Another famous example of a spoonerism is supposedly someone once said to Queen Victoria, "I have in my bosom a half-warmed fish".

Ted: Ok… what were they trying to say?

Sam: What they were trying to say was, "They had a half-formed wish".

Ted: Ah, ok.

Sam: Not a half-warmed fish. It's… you see what happened there, yeh?

Ted: Right, yeh, they switched the 'w' and the 'f'. Yeh, yeh…

Sam: They got all mixed up.

Ted: Ok!

Sam: Classic error… Anyway, so that's another idea…

Ted: I, I, like this one too. Um, so, I really like Spooky Spoonerisms and Booze or Lose?. So I think those are, are coming up listeners, something to look forward to. You got anything else, Sam?

Sam: I'm, I'm out. That's it…

Ted: Ok.

Sam: …that's it Ted, my creative juices are spent. I'm dry. I'm exhausted. Couldn't we maybe just ask our listener's for some ideas? I mean that's what everyone does, don't they?

Ted: Yeh, yeh, that's totally fine with me. So, listeners, if you have any ideas for segments, you want to hear us talk about something, you want to learn a little bit more about a certain aspect of the marvellous English language.

Sam: Or you have any questions about anything you've heard so far on these, um, episodes, you know, if anything you would like us to clarify for you, any answers you need…

Ted: You can just, err, get in touch with us, um, and again err that's on Twitter, you can just tweet @Babbel, um, or you can email us at podcasting@babbel.com, and remember, please, to subscribe to us wherever get your podcasts and while you’re there, you can search “Babbel” (B-A-B-B-E-L) to check out other Babbel podcasts. Thanks for listening!

Sam: Thanks for listening! See you next time!

Ted: Bye!