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Natural English: Can You Understand? Listen NOW & Test Yourself (Food)
Natural English: Can You Understand? Listen NOW & Test Yourself (Food)
To Fluency
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18:57 · Mar 18, 2025
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warning this English lesson might make you hungry
0:05
and it's because we are going to talk about food today
0:10
and this is great English listing practice
0:14
and you're also going to learn some really interesting facts
0:19
and differences between food in the UK
0:22
and food in the USA we'll go through some very interesting American breakfasts we'll
0:30
also talk about grocery shopping the time
0:33
that people eat in different countries
0:36
and lots of other interesting facts
0:38
and you're going to really learn lots of phrases along the way
0:42
so listen to this until the end my name is Jack from to fluency
0:48
if you're new here
0:50
then subscribe to the YouTube channel
0:52
or if you're listening on Spotify
0:55
or on Apple Podcast
0:57
then follow this podcast for more lessons like this
1:01
so let's start with typical meal times
1:04
because a lot of people especially around Europe think
1:08
that people in the UK
1:09
and people in the US eat really early
1:12
when it comes to dinner now this is sometimes true however most families
1:21
that I know and a lot of my upbringing we normally ate dinner around
1:27
6 to 7:00 now I would often come home from school
1:34
and get a big snack
1:36
and then have dinner later
1:38
and I also know some people who have dinner quite early at five PM
1:44
maybe six PM but generally speaking it's around 6
1:49
or 6:30 it's probably the average time now here is an interesting difference
1:55
because in the UK in northern England where I am from dinner is often
2:03
called tea so you'll hear people say what's for tea tonight?
2:08
what's for tea tonight?
2:09
or what we having for tea?
2:11
what are we having for tea?
2:13
instead of what are we having for dinner American schools start earlier than British
2:20
schools so in American schools you have to start at 8 am in most
2:26
places that I have known
2:28
and in the UK it's more around 9:00am
2:32
so often times people in the US will have an earlier breakfast they'll have
2:36
to get up earlier
2:37
and have an earlier breakfast
2:40
and then the typical time for lunch in the UK
2:42
and the USA is around midday around 12:00 now from my experience Americans tend
2:52
to eat more snacks throughout the day
2:54
so they tend to snack more throughout the day instead of just sticking to
2:59
the meals that they have breakfast lunch
3:03
and dinner so whenever people go out for the day it's always where are
3:08
the snacks do we have enough snacks shall we get some snacks
3:12
and snacking is big in the US it also happens in the UK
3:17
and when I was growing up it would often be tea
3:20
and biscuits when you get back from school
3:23
so something like that something sweet something nice in between meal times now breakfast
3:30
is often called the most important meal of the day
3:34
but it looks very different in the UK
3:37
and the USA so a typical British breakfast would be cereal
3:44
and milk for children
3:46
which is common as well in the USA
3:49
and some adults like to do this
3:51
as well but in the UK people growing up would often have beans on
3:57
toast so you will make toast
4:00
and have some baked beans on there
4:03
and if it's the weekend
4:04
or if you have more time people often have eggs bacon baked beans mushrooms
4:14
tomatoes and other things
4:16
which is called an English breakfast an English breakfast
4:22
and people will often have toast with Marmite
4:27
or jam now Marmite is a very strange food item
4:33
that you put on toast
4:35
or other things too
4:36
and it said that you either love it
4:39
or you hate it you either love it
4:41
or hate it in the US in America you would often have something like
4:48
pancakes and waffles with the syrup now obviously this changes where you are
4:54
and who you are
4:55
but pancakes and waffles is often very popular especially with some type of syrup
5:02
you also see people have bagels with something like cream cheese
5:09
which is a spreadable cheese bagels with cream cheese you might have eggs
5:15
and toast as well
5:16
so I know a lot of people who have eggs
5:19
and toast and like we said before cereal is common
5:23
and so is oatmeal let's talk about lunch now
5:27
and there is one lunch item
5:30
that is very popular in the US
5:33
and I've never seen it anywhere else in terms of popularity
5:38
and it's this a peanut butter
5:41
and jelly sandwich so think about peanut butter
5:46
and jelly here means jam jam
5:50
and it's a sandwich now listen to this fact it's estimated
5:55
that the average American will eat nearly 3,000 3,000 peanut butter
6:03
and jelly sandwiches in their lifetime now I imagine a lot of these come
6:09
when people are in school
6:12
because it's the classic sandwich for children
6:16
when they go to school it's tasty for the child
6:21
although I'm not a massive fan of it it is also easy to make
6:27
and it is fairly affordable too
6:30
so it's a very simple solution for a child's meal at lunchtime in the
6:37
UK something like a sandwich crisps
6:41
and a drink is often packed in a lunch box for either school
6:45
or work so this is very common in the UK where people will have
6:50
a sandwich maybe a chicken sandwich maybe a tuna sandwich
6:55
and they'd also have crisps
6:57
and a drink this is very common
7:00
when it comes to school
7:01
and also when people pack their own lunch for work
7:06
if people are eating at home in the UK is quite often to have
7:11
soup and bread for lunch too people in the UK often like something a
7:16
little bit lighter when it comes to lunch
7:20
and if they're having something from a takeaway
7:25
or they're eating out they'll like to get something like sausage rolls
7:29
or pasties or a pie okay
7:32
and this is often from somewhere called Greggs now dinners are often fairly similar
7:38
in the UK and the USA
7:40
but in the UK it's often times you'll have roast dinners on a Sunday
7:46
fish and chips are still popular something like Shepherd's pie is popular too
7:52
and also sausage and mash in the US it's more common to have things
7:59
like macaroni and cheese
8:01
which is called Mac
8:02
and cheese and things like barbecue ribs
8:06
or different types of barbecue now here's a fun fact in the USA portion
8:13
sizes are much bigger
8:16
and when I first visited America this is something
8:19
that I noticed that portion sizes are much much bigger
8:25
so they often have massive servings
8:29
if you go to a restaurant really big servings
8:32
if you go to a restaurant
8:34
and it's quite daunting it's quite incredible
8:38
when you see this for the first time now speaking about bigger let's talk
8:44
about grocery shopping and also what's on a food label
8:49
and eating out so UK supermarkets are much smaller than US supermarkets
8:58
and in the US you're going to a supermarket here it is called a
9:03
grocery store and you'll be amazed at the size of it
9:07
and in the US is also supermarkets
9:10
that have anything you need
9:12
so there's one called Walmart another one is target
9:16
which is more of a store
9:18
but it's becoming more of a grocery store these days
9:22
and you can just buy massive food items too
9:27
so things come in bulk chip
9:30
or crisp packets are much bigger ketchup bottles are much bigger people have bigger
9:36
fridges in the US like we talked about in the last podcast episode
9:40
so they can fill their fridge full of food they have pantries where they
9:46
can fill their pantry full of food
9:48
so everything is bigger in the US including serving sizes grocery stores
9:55
and everything else you can think about
9:56
when it comes to the size of food items now eating out is a
10:03
big part of American culture
10:06
and although people love to do this in the UK what strikes me is
10:12
what I notice is
10:13
that people prefer to eat out in the USA more than the UK now
10:19
in England and Scotland
10:21
and Wales and Northern Ireland the UK people tend to prefer to go to
10:27
a pub when they go out in the evening
10:30
so they'll often go to a pub have some drinks
10:33
and then sometimes get some pub food
10:37
but in the USA it's more likely
10:39
if you're going to go out
10:41
and socialize and meet up with friends you're gonna go to a restaurant now
10:46
I'm sure you know this
10:47
as well but tipping culture is very different in the UK tipping is optional
10:54
most restaurants had some type of service charge
10:58
so an extra charge especially
11:00
if you're in a big group
11:02
but in the USA tipping is expected it's one of those things you have
11:07
to do and most people tip between 15
11:12
and 20% of the total bill
11:14
so you have to take the bill calculate what 20% is for example
11:20
and add this on to the bill
11:22
because in the UK waiters
11:24
or servers they earn a fixed wage
11:28
so tips are just a bonus to them in the USA everyone has to
11:33
rely on tips as a main income
11:36
because the wages are lower
11:38
so it's just one of those things where it's different
11:43
but it ends up being the same more
11:45
or less how much those servers get paid now in American restaurants the very
11:51
service focused and waiters check on you frequently
11:56
as soon as your food comes out they'll say how is everything how is
12:00
everything and you can say in these situations everything's great yeah everything is fantastic
12:07
British restaurants take a more hands off approach
12:11
which means they don't check on you frequently
12:14
and they won't interrupt your meal often a lot of drinks in the USA
12:20
are free when it comes to refills
12:24
so let's say that you have um Coca Cola
12:28
or a lemonade the server will come over
12:32
and ask if you want some more they'll always bring you water too whereas
12:37
in the UK that's not
12:38
as common and also you'll get free refills of coffee too
12:43
so you can always ask for more coffee unless it's a cappuccino
12:47
or an espresso type drink here is a question for you do you like
12:52
waiters checking on you?
12:54
or do you prefer to eat in peace?
12:57
so do you like a waiter who often comes over
13:01
and ask you how things are how's everything going
13:04
or do you prefer just get your food
13:07
and eat in peace
13:09
and get someone's attention
13:11
if you need some help before we talk about some famous quotes about food
13:16
and some idioms let's now talk about fast food
13:21
and takeaways because both the UK
13:23
and the USA love fast food
13:27
but the options are very different now in the UK you can think of
13:32
fast food like fish
13:34
and chip shops also kebab shops
13:38
so people love kebabs in the UK there are also things like McDonald's
13:44
and KFC whereas in the US things like chick fil A McDonald's
13:52
and Taco Bell are very common
13:55
and these will have dry thru's
13:58
so in you in the UK often
14:00
if you go to get fish
14:02
and chips or you go to a kebab shop you have to enter the
14:07
shop in the US people often go through the drive thru
14:12
and this is more common than going inside the uh fast food store now
14:18
takeaway or take out has changed over the years
14:22
because a lot of people use apps now to get food delivered
14:27
but in the UK Indian
14:29
and Chinese takeaways are probably the most popular
14:34
and in the past what what you would do is you would call the
14:37
restaurant directly place your order
14:40
then someone from that restaurant would deliver
14:42
that order and then you pay for the order
14:45
when it comes to you
14:47
so that was the most common way to order a takeaway in the past
14:52
this might have changed recently with different apps
14:56
that allow you to do this
14:58
and in the USA it's much more common now just to use an app
15:03
in order to get your food delivered to get takeout however you can still
15:08
place an order at a restaurant
15:10
and pick it up this is common
15:13
if you want to do it on your way home from work for example
15:17
let's look at some famous quotes about food now the first one is from
15:21
Julia Child and she said people who love to eat are always the best
15:28
people now in the US this is often called a foodie
15:33
so somebody who loves food
15:35
and loves going out to eat
15:37
and try new things
15:38
and try new restaurants these people are called foodies foodies now I am not
15:44
a foodie I am not a foodie I enjoy
15:48
that type of experience
15:50
and going out to eat
15:51
and try new foods
15:53
but I'm not somebody who makes this a big part of my life back
15:58
to the quote people who love to eat are always the best people this
16:02
is saying like food is not just about survival it's also about the enjoyment
16:08
culture and social connections now do you enjoy trying new foods?
16:13
or do you like to stick to your favorites?
16:17
are you adventurous when it comes to new foods?
16:20
or do you like to just eat what you like?
16:22
quote No. 2 which I think goes back to ancient Greece is this you
16:29
are what you eat you are what you eat
16:33
and this means that your diet affects your health energy
16:38
and even your mood
16:39
as well and if you eat well you feel better
16:42
and going back to fast food
16:44
and junk food if you eat junk food you might feel tired
16:48
and sluggish and unhealthy now do you believe
16:52
that food affects your mood
16:54
and what is something
16:55
that you eat that makes you feel alive
16:58
and energetic let's go on to the idioms now
17:02
and these are fun ones I'm sure you've heard number two maybe No. 4
17:08
but No. 1 is an apple a day keeps the doctor away an apple
17:13
a day keeps the doctor away
17:16
and this means eating healthy foods keeps you from getting sick
17:20
so you'll often hear an apple a day keeps a doctor away No. 2
17:25
is it's a piece of cake it's a piece of cake
17:29
which means that something is very easy
17:32
so if somebody asks you how was
17:34
that test?
17:35
you can say ah it was a piece of cake No. 3 is common
17:39
in the US and it's this
17:41
when life gives you lemons make lemonade
17:45
and it means to turn difficult situations into something positive
17:51
so when life gives you lemons make lemonade No. 4 is put all your
17:58
eggs in one basket
18:00
and this means to risk everything on one thing for example I wouldn't invest
18:06
all my money in
18:06
that one company don't put all your eggs in one basket don't put all
18:11
your eggs in one basket
18:13
and No. 5 is the proof is in the pudding the proof is in
18:17
the pudding meaning that you have to experience something to know
18:22
if it's good or bad an example might be he says he's really good
18:27
at cooking but the proof is in the pudding let's see how the food
18:31
tastes okay so we have covered a lot in this lesson the next thing
18:36
to do is to check the description for these idioms
18:40
and key phrases like this lesson
18:44
and then also share it with a friend
18:47
and once you have done
18:48
that go back to previous lessons
18:51
and continue learning with me okay thank you
18:54
so much for being here bye for now
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