You're listening to Zdenek's English podcast by far the greatest English podcast on earth for English learners Since sliced bread. My name is Denek and I'm your host Hello everyone, welcome back to Zdenek's English podcast Yes, you heard me right Zdenek's English podcast. This podcast is not dead yet. It still exists It's not exactly a podcast which would get published regularly not anymore, but it's still alive and kicking and
I am the host of this podcast. My name is Zdenek Lukas. I'm an English teacher from the Czech Republic and I've been doing this podcast since time immemorial for as long as I can remember There are actually 460 episodes I've published 460 episodes before this one not all of them are available on the YouTube channel This one certainly is so if you are an audio listener feel free to watch this as a video as well where you will be able to see my beautiful face of course right
part of the reason that I'm not as prolific as I used to be is Is that I have got a lot on my plate I'm spreading myself too thin because this is not my only podcast. This is the longest podcast I've been doing This is the podcast that I've been doing since 2013. I believe so almost 13 years now, which is Unbelievable 12 years maybe right as you can see I'm not very good at mathematics That mathematics is not my strong suit but hopefully English is or should be at least because
Even though English is not my first language. I'm not an native speaker of the English language. I Am an English teacher. I have a master's degree in teaching CELTA and Delta as well apart from module 3 I believe but who cares about that, right? Anyway, I've got years of experience teaching English as well as
recording these podcasts for English learners. That's right. These podcasts are Primarily for you guys that are learning English that wants to develop Your or their listening skills and hopefully pick up some vocabulary in the process Yes, this is the idea behind it because all English learners need A certain amount of exposure to the English language and the more exposure you have what what is exposure exposure is? How much you are involved with that language?
How much you actually listen to the language in your daily life and whether it's through Conversations with people listening to podcasts watching videos on YouTube or I don't know having conversations with Chedgy PT, whatever it is, right you need to do this regularly. You need to hear the language in order to Make progress fast, right? So that is the idea behind doing this podcast I know there are a lot of podcasts like this. I guess mine is unique because
I'm not English or American. I'm a non-native speaker, which I think Puts me in a position where I can basically sort of Set myself as an example, right? I can use myself as an example of someone who has achieved
Certain level of proficiency, right? Hopefully it's the c2 level. I certainly hope so and I think this might serve as a Sort of a Inspiring model hopefully hopefully it does I've heard it from some people some listen Some of my listeners have been telling me this so I think this is my sort of strength or this is the thing that You can benefit from because obviously more podcasts are done by native speakers and
They are very professional way more professional than mine way funnier. I suppose but you know this one is different for this obvious reason I think you as Learners of the English language you can relate to the experience of of Me right you can relate to my experience of having to learn the level level having to learn English to a certain level Speaking of my other podcasts, I should mention them as well These days I'm focusing mostly on teaching English through football
So my other podcast is called the foot glitch podcast and it's also available wherever you get your podcast on iTunes I think it's called Apple podcasts now, right Spotify and You can find it on my youtube channel as well on the teachers the Nick youtube channel You can find both episodes of the foot glitch podcast the podcast about football as well As this podcast called the next English podcast So what am I gonna talk about? in this episode well, I
Suppose I will just sort of keep you up to date with my life. You know, it's some kind of a catch-up with my life Because I haven't done that for a while like the previous episodes were mostly interviews with my friends And that was going to be one more interview which I recorded in summer with one of my students I Have one teenage student even though she's the only one Most of my students are just adults whether they are Czech or foreigners when I say foreigners, I mean
Mostly Europeans, right? I've got some Italian students. I've got a student from Switzerland Student from Germany. There's one student from Slovakia Belarussian as well. So I've got students from all over the place and The point of this is why my why am I saying all this? I don't even know
Oh, yeah, I was talking about what this podcast will be about, right? So it's It's what you can look forward to in this episode And make sure you listen to the end because I've got a surprise for you as well It's a Christmas present from me actually and You can win something it's a competition and it's not gonna be too hard And I think you have a good chance of winning this so make sure you listen till the very end So as you guys know in the last two years
I've been living in Vietnam apart from summer I actually came back to the Czech Republic In at the end of May this year and I was planning to stay there for about three four months Because I had to run a few errands. I had to Do a few things which I couldn't do here in Vietnam and Once I did those things and I was feeling it was the right time to go back I did go back. So now I'm back in Vietnam
I've only changed the city. So I'm not in Da Nang currently. I am in the Ho Chi Minh City Yeah in Saigon But in summer the things I had to do I did them And just took slightly longer than I expected one of the things was I had to have a small surgery on my back I was nothing too You know nothing too serious, but it had to be done slightly unpleasant Then they also had to pull out two of my teeth
These were my wisdom teeth. Yeah, number eight teeth And I had to do a few things to get them out of the way So I had to pull out two of my teeth. These were my wisdom teeth. Yeah number eight teeth that was Less good, I would say I mean the the actual extraction the actual surgery or
What you might call it was okay. I didn't feel any pain, but then I felt some pain once it my teeth started coming around because as you know, they anesthetize very well, and you don't feel anything, but then You know after a few hours it starts hurting really bad And you have to take those painkillers and I also had some complications. I think there was some infection
Which is quite common as well. So let's say I expected this to go a little bit smoother than it did but All is well that ends well, you know and the last thing I wanted to do obviously was to take the motorbike course Yes, because I wanted to learn how to ride a motorbike Which is something you have to kind of do here in Vietnam if you want to live here otherwise, you just have to
Always book grab which is like an app. It's kind of like motorbike taxi imagine that It's not too expensive, but it's actually cheaper if you have your own motorbike or if you hire a motorbike you also have more freedom and I haven't been Riding a motorbike yet, even though I do have the license now Speaking of the license there was a twist to the story as well. I did get it in the end, but Let's say It was a bit difficult for me. It was a bit challenging and
There is a twist to it. I'm gonna speak about this on On Luke's English podcast, hopefully because I've been invited by Luke again There's supposed to be an episode in January which we record with Luke and it should be about Overcoming fear that is the theme that is the topic and I'm definitely going to talk about my experience of taking this motorbike course because To be honest, it was quite quite unusual for For one main reason, but yeah, I can tell you about it later
I don't want to repeat myself basically so If you are Luke's English podcast fans, which I assume you are because I think most of My listeners come from Luke's English podcast then Hopefully you will have good time listening to this episode and Yeah, of course, I wanted to see my family as well And you know, it's nice to be back It is the best time to be back in summer because it's hot you can just wear your t-shirt It also was quite nice to catch up with my friends from high school, which I
Had been neglecting for a long time. So I was proud to have made the the step to Um, to reconnect with them, which honestly I have to say I've
I had been really neglecting that a lot. So I'm in touch with them now and I have hopefully fixed some of I wouldn't say fixed friendships, but I have let's say Let's say that the friendships they have never really ended but You know, I think it's a good time to be back but you know out of mind out of sight, right if you don't see someone for a long time you sort of like Forget those people but all you need to do is to just catch up with them and then
Everything can be as it was before. Yep. So I was really happy That I did that. Of course, it was nice to see my sister my cousin honza my aunt And so on and so forth so That was that was the good bit. But at the same time, I thought it was the right time to come back here to go back to vietnam because I feel like
This is the place where I belong right now. Yeah, there are a lot of benefits here and I've spoken about this before And me being me Me being single as well and me being more or less a digital nomad But I can actually live here and I can do okay
I'm not like making millions here. That's that's not something that is happening. Not at all, but It's it's feasible is doable because it's a like sort of cheaper country when it comes to Your your life your daily life I can make ends meet right And I could do the same in the czech republic
But it's nice to be somewhere else. Yeah, you're just sort of opening your mind Broadening broadening your horizons meeting a lot of people It's just It's just the right thing to do and you know, it's not my first destination
Obviously, I used to live in london and stuff, but this is completely different. It feels completely different because the culture is The culture is really distant right it's so different on so many on so many levels and yet We are all humans, right especially we are connected by globalization Technology the internet a lot of things are really the same but there are some differences, too So Where am I living right now? So as I said, I'm inside the czech republic
Where am I living right now? So as I said, i'm in saigon I came At the very end the last day of november. No, sorry October the last day of october. So i've been here since the beginning of november And i'm recording At christmas i'm recording on Christmas day, I believe that's right, which is the 25th of december And I am recording from a flat that i'm currently living in
And this is a flat that belongs to my flatmate. Yeah, i've got a flatmate and she Basically, let me stay here for not for free, of course i'm paying the rent but It was nice of her to give me this Option to give me this opportunity And I also have to say that there is a cat here with me Hi, i'm lucas from slovakia and I like the achievers chamber Because I have the opportunity to meet talkative people who are about the same level
For more information about the achievers chamber go to teachersdanek.com Yes a real cat it's um very very cool Kind of kitten the cat is not even one year old. So I think it's a kitten. She's a kitten
She's a british short hair. I don't know if you're in if you're into cat breeds if you understand But she's her the breed of the cat is called british short hair if you want feel free to google it these cats are really I would say very photogenic very good looking I think and uh, we will see she might even Show herself behind me if you are watching this on YouTube she likes to run around the the room. This is i'm recording from the kitchen she likes to run around the kitchen and
And just going crazy because she has she has she's full of beans, right? She has a lot of energy Currently she's lying on the top of fridge She is she found her spot. It's it's slightly cooler there as you can imagine is the fridge, right? And also she likes to hunt A gecko which often hides behind the picture which is near Near that fridge so she has a good view from there because it's obviously in a certain height. I would say like two almost two meters High that fridge right so she can
She can be close to that hide hiding spot of that gecko. What's a gecko? Zdenek gecko is I guess some sort of lizard and it's a small one It's a small lizard. I don't know could be about five to ten centimeters tall maybe five to eight centimeters tall and it Uh likes to eat insects such as mosquitoes and so on
Yeah, the cat is really really cool. I spend a lot of time with her. I really play around a lot and tease I like to tease the cat and yeah, we always you know, it's like my companion here because You know, I do a lot of work from home as well and I spend a lot of time in this kitchen with the cat It's kind of cool. I've never lived with a cat. So it's my first time and I have to say Um She's cool. Yeah We respect each other so You might be Surprised but one of my main aims
At the beginning of this journey of vietnamese journey. It's Part two right because before I was in danang for one and a half years now in vietnam for the second time The main aim was to lose weight because In summer I had gained a lot of weight way too much you know I was I had over 95 kilos almost Yeah, at one point I weighed like 96 kilos It was always around like 95
And that's way too much. That was my record Fortunately I was right in Supposing that I would manage to lose weight here quickly It only took me one month and I was like 5 kilos down and I think now I'm like I weighed myself Before I started recording this podcast and I think I was on 87 kilos as you can see so it's like 8 kilos down Why is it so easy here?
Well mainly because of my lifestyle my habits have changed I do way more sport More regularly I also eat better I also eat better I eat less And it's a hot country It's a tropical country right So there's more humidity And I think it helps me lose weight as well I'm not an expert I'm not a dietary expert But yes So this is going according to plan I'm really happy about it Part of the reason it's going so well is the The weight loss The weight loss is the most important thing
Part of the reason it's going so well is Because there is a swimming pool I'm living in a high rise building I'm actually on the 7th floor It's a high rise building It's like a block of flats right And it's a modern one And you've got a You've got a swimming pool on the 6th floor When almost nobody goes So most of the time I'm there alone Which is cool I've never really been into swimming that much Actually what I will say is that Actually what I will say is that I started swimming in my 30s
So I kind of discovered this sport So I kind of discovered this sport Which is very common in the Czech Republic Which is very common in the Czech Republic Of course I went to the lake Like every summer when I was young But I never really got into it I mostly just like to play With a ball and this sort of Horse around in water But now I'm trying to swim really Like do the freestyle And breaststroke And all those main styles The swimming styles I even hired a teacher to look at
The mistakes I'm making I'm making a lot of mistakes when I swim My style is awful But it's a good thing Because it's nice to Develop yourself In some ways And this was one of the ways I could do it So now I'm swimming So breathing under the water So I'm trying to do it properly Trying to follow the right style So hopefully I'm improving Then there's also a gym A small gym On the 6th floor as well So I go there too Not very often but usually before the swimming pool
Before I visit the swimming pool Before I visit the swimming pool Also ran a lot the first month But now I think I don't run as much And the main reason is because I play Pickleball and badminton So I started with badminton I bought two rackets and some shuttlecocks No this is not a swear word A shuttlecock It's that ball they use for badminton It's called a shuttlecock Don't ask me why It has the word cock in it For some reason And then I discovered pickleball Which is an amazing sport
It's something like tennis Imagine tennis But it's played on a court Which is like 4 times smaller Most of the time I just play doubles It's a great social activity It's not overpriced You can afford it And you always meet Interesting people It really reminds you of tennis But you've got like plastic rackets The ball has holes in it And it sort of looks like The ball used for floorball There is a rule that you cannot Volley when you're in the kitchen Kitchen is the area next to the net
And you cannot Stand in the kitchen In that area and volley from there You have to step back a little bit Then you can volley Which is my favorite shot In tennis as well as pickleball I think I'm quite good at it I definitely have some weaknesses Just like everyone But volley I think is not one of them So This pickleball is such a good sport I don't think it's that popular in Europe I think in Europe you have padel instead Which is Again like a smaller Tennis but it has
Montanels, it has like boards Glass boards, maybe plastic And the ball can bounce Of those glasses and it's still In play but here it's More like tennis like I said Of course the counting The point system is a bit different You play until 11 points And you don't serve in the same Way as in tennis And you can only score points When you are serving So if you play doubles Each of you Has one serve And you can score points like Similarly to volleyball When you are on the serve you can score points
You cannot score points when the opponent Is on the serve Anyway google it, you can google pickleball There is so much stuff about it On YouTube, I think it Really got popular in the USA And then it spread To South East Asia So I think here it's basically Pushing out tennis completely It is super Super popular here And it's growing On me I have to say, I also bought A racket and If you ask me which of These two sports, badminton and Pickleball, do you like
Most, do you like the most? I would Definitely have to say pickleball I have to say it's A fantastic sport Yeah, so Apart from doing A lot of sport and trying to lose Weight successfully Fortunately I have also been playing board games As usual, I have got a few games with Me, but also I found a few board games Cafes here, one of them Is called Hoi And the other one is Board game station, I think Board game station And there I met a few friends Mainly Vietnamese people, I'm surprised
I haven't met that many Foreigners, when I say foreigners I mean expats So Only about two But I also Had a chance to see My friends from Da Nang Because Chris, remember Chris?
He was on at least two episodes of The Next English Podcast before Chris came to visit Saigon So we caught up At the airport We had a meal and drink And then Dan came over as well Dan is an Australian friend Of mine Who I played Some board games with as well And yeah, it was a lot of fun So yeah, but most of the People I'm meeting here, most of the friends That I play board games with and indeed Sports with are Vietnamese people Obviously I'm able to connect more
With those that speak good English So there are a couple Of English teachers That I play with I play board games with They are a lot of fun Because if someone's English isn't very good Then I'm not able to connect With them much naturally, right?
It's logical since my own Vietnamese is zero I haven't really made any progress here What I would say Is that I may have regressed actually Yes, it may have Got worse, but Well, I can say a few basic phrases Which I keep repeating, but I'm not Very proud of myself, I should Do more, you know, when you live In a country A foreign country For a longer time You should really start learning that language Right? Yeah, but the Thing is everybody wants to Speak English with me, I feel like it's a
Superpower here, right? It's like I now understand all those native Speakers that never learn a foreign language Because everybody wants to speak their language Yeah, they have Such a power basically Right, Christmas I spent my Christmas here with The cat and my roommate Yesterday, on The Christmas Eve I gave the cat a gift It's actually like a Small toy, it's An electronic device It looks like a mouse, but it's Kind of like a car, right?
It's a mouse that moves It's on wheels and you control it with a remote Control And I have to say That's quite funny The cat wasn't that impressed at first But I think she's slowly getting used To it now Yeah, so There are a few issues as well A few things that are not going as well as I expected, one of them is my dating Life, it's been a bit Meh I know why I know exactly why It's because I want A girlfriend too much My energy is wrong My mindset is wrong I know I will fix that
Because I'm already I can see some progress In that area already, so I think I'm getting there Give me some time, but The first month, I think people have overhyped This place as well for me My friends, they told me, oh it's so easy to find someone here It's Saigon, there's so many people here So I went on Tinder naturally Like every man would And I've had a few dates But let's say they have been A bit underwhelming Yeah, for one reason Or another And part of the reason is also my wrong
Energy as I said, my mindset Isn't right You need to give it more time, you need to be more patient And I haven't been that patient, I think is the main problem I also went to a speed Dating event, which also was Embarrassing, but at least I did it, I'm proud of myself Actually I went there, it was fun I had a lot of fun And Secondly, I'm not driving yet Even though I have a license now I've already spoken about this But I'm not confident enough to Start riding A motorbike here in Saigon
The traffic is just way too heavy Way too crazy Too many cars, too many motorbikes Too crowded Not a place To slowly Build your confidence That's why I'm planning to go back to Da Nang I'm going there in about one month And I will try there Because there will be the Tet holiday Which is the biggest holiday in Vietnam And the streets should be Emptier Than now And also Da Nang is less crowded So I think That will be the right opportunity to Rent a motorbike Ask a friend or two If they could
Go with me the first few Times And pluck up my courage and do it I know I can do it now Because I rode a motorbike with A clutch And all that So here I can just rent a scooter Which should be easier, even easier But it's also about the mindset of the Vietnamese people They just behave differently on the road Than the Czech people do or Europeans do They sort of Follow the rules In a vague way Let's say And that scares me a little bit Because you sort of have to Understand their mentality
You have to get into their heads And go out in order to Anticipate what could happen So to make the right choices To make the right decisions And that scares me a little bit But I think I can do it I just need to choose the right time Right place And it will all be fine The last thing that sort of bothers me Is the fact that I cannot use steam In Vietnam anymore It's been banned for some reason You can read about it online as well But you need to find some sort of workaround
You need to bypass it by using a VPN Or something like that I haven't been able to get around to that yet But I have to say It's a bit annoying because sometimes I want to play a game But I have to do with mobile games these days So I play this, what's it called? The Royal Match Have you played Royal Match before? It's like the classic game of Diamond Mine So what's another word? There's another one There's another name for it Candy Crush, right?
So that kind of game I play that a little bit But yeah It's kind of disappointing That I cannot run steam here We will see if I fix that in the future But as you may have imagined As you may imagine I watch a lot of football as usual That's why I'm a night owl here again I go to bed early in the morning really At 4 or 5 a.m.
In order to be able to watch those games Of the Champions League and Premier League And Europa League and Conference League And you know Football is something I don't do anymore I don't play football But I definitely watch it So yeah If you guys are into football You can go to the Footgris podcast It's my other podcast Which I'm really putting a lot of energy into these days Yeah so as I said Next on agenda is Da Nang I'll go back I'll stay there for a bit Compare the two places
See if I want to stay there Or come back here Because I can see there are a lot of good opportunities You can take part in here as well So I cannot say which place I like more I think it depends on your situation For example if I fell in love here with a girl I would be more inclined to stay here Does that make sense? I think it does So that hasn't happened yet But you never know right?
It still could happen Yeah so I also mentioned to you that I was going to feature on Luke's English Podcast So that hasn't been recorded yet Hopefully I will not disappoint Luke's English Podcast listeners And I will do a good job It's always slightly stressful Because I know obviously that Luke's English Podcast Is a podcast of high standards So I have to do my best I have to prepare for it a little bit as well I have to know what I'm talking about on that podcast
Otherwise I might let a few people down And I don't want to do that I've already done a few episodes A couple of episodes on Luke's English Podcast One is about teaching and learning English Then last year I did one about insects And this one should be about overcoming fear Which I don't claim to be an expert in But you don't always have to be an expert at something In order to talk about it right?
A lot of people do that these days A lot of people have a podcast A lot of people have a voice You know it's kind of nice Right we are getting to the end We are drawing close to the end of this episode And I promised to you that I would have a gift for you right?
And this is true I will keep my promise I will do what I said I would And tell you about this competition It's very simple In the description of this episode Whether it's on YouTube or your podcast application You will find a link which says Christmas competition or Christmas quiz maybe And this will take you to a Google Form Which I've prepared for you This Google Form contains five simple questions Which I would like you to answer For example one of the questions will be Where am I from?
Where is the host of the next English podcast from?
So you guys probably know my nationality Especially if you are long term listeners I'm sure you know And I will ask a few questions A few more questions and you provide your answers And then I will reward the first Let's say the first five people The first five people that will have correct answers Will be given a monthly membership In the achievers chamber Which is the group for high level English learners That I have on Discord And I've been advertising here on this podcast before
And I've been running this group for several years And I think it's doing alright So it would be nice to get some fresh blood What's the word for it?
Breath of fresh air, some new people It would be nice to see some new nationalities there For example as well So I will let you stay until the end of January And obviously it's a paid group otherwise If you like it you can pay for it then later So it will be a good chance to try it out Even if you make one or two mistakes You still have a chance Because I don't know how many people will take part I have no idea But what I will say is that you should be at least B2 level
You could be B2, C1 or C2 level So upper intermediate, advanced or proficient Because that's the level of the members So I want to make sure that everyone feels good in the group That's why everyone needs to have a similar level And as well as that Well you can look forward to events with me With some of my colleagues With Claire from the UK She has two events there with Lucas from Slovakia And did I forget about someone?
I hope not We might have an event with Jolly as well from Spain soon So different things, practicing vocabulary, conversation Different stuff really I think it's pretty cool Some grammar too You can join the events that you find useful Or that you have time for Obviously you don't have to have 100% attendance What I will say is that most of us are Europeans This is mainly because of the time zones The time zones suit Europeans the most
Because these events take place in the evening of Central European time Anyway, you can join even if you're not from Europe As long as you make it to the events Just fill out this form Do the quiz and see what happens There is no downside to trying There's no side effect You can only win You cannot lose I can also offer to you another voucher if you want You would have to send me a private email for that though It's teachersdenek at gmail.com
If you're interested in having one-to-one lessons with me If you want to work on your conversation skills If you want to get some feedback on your English If you want to polish your pronunciation I am your guy And you wouldn't be the first listener of this podcast that has contacted me I actually still teach some of my listeners I want to say hi to Lazo for example I know he's listening Also others If I start naming more people I will probably forget about someone
But I can give you one free lesson and three lessons for half price In January If you sign up in January you would just have to send me an email that you're interested in this discount I do this because it's my way to showcase my teaching skills And it's just sort of an opportunity to get to know each other To see if we are the right fit for each other as a teacher and student Because these days obviously everyone wants an AI teacher So I'm old school a little bit in that
But no, I don't think I am My lessons are kind of laid back, it's based on conversation But you also get feedback and it's also individual too You can ask for whatever you really want I mean within certain boundaries I'm not going to give you a massage I don't even know how I would do that online How do you give an online massage? I don't think so You know what I mean, right?
If you have certain requirements, preferences Just tell me and we can do that I'm experienced enough to help you Yeah, because as you know I'm an English teacher with how many years of experience?
13 years of experience So I know what I'm doing Or I should know what I'm doing, hopefully Okay, by the way this I have to say one thing This does not apply to my current students So if you're my current student You can get this discount for someone else Just tell me, I'll send you a voucher And you can reward one of your friends or something Give it to them as a belated Christmas present Whatever And the same applies to the achievers chamber membership Till the end of January Also, same thing
If you are a member already You can't really win this Because you are a member already, you see But you could give it to someone else You could give it to your friend, colleague, lover, husband, cat Cats are not allowed in fact Because they don't speak English So unless your cat speaks good English Like, I mean really good English They can't join, I'm sorry Even though I do like cats Okay, I guess that will be it A lot of rambling, right?
Hopefully some of it has been useful for you Yeah I will try to keep this podcast up But as you can see it's a bit of a struggle So the best way you can stay in touch with me Is really through that group Now is the great time to try it out Five of you will get that opportunity You could also just join for that prize that I'm offering It's not that expensive if you are from Europe I think it's a fair price For what?
For the kind of value you are getting there It's actually a low price Believe me Because I've seen some other similar groups And...
Just try, see for yourself You will find more information on my website TeachesDenec.com It's all there For some reason I cannot launch this website from Vietnam But it should work in Europe So if not, please let me know Guys, that's all from me for today I wish you a very Merry Christmas And a Happy New Year And yeah, if you like this video Give it a like on YouTube as well Make a review, write a review Wherever you can do that You know, Apple Podcasts, Spotify All the good stuff
Support this podcast Thank you very much for listening And I'll speak to you again soon Bye for now Cheers