This episode is an improvised lesson. It features two students of mine, Valentin from Ukraine and Mina from Serbia. The former is a rising star of tattoo art and the latter a former professional handball player. This episode's theme is therefore tattooing and handball. If you want to know what it is like to become a tattoo artist, how it feels to make your first tattoo, Valentin will provide you with the answers in this episode. There is some occasional ramble such as us when we try to speculate...
Jun 10, 2016•49 min
Hello listeners, sometimes I like to improvise my classes and sometimes I improvise episodes of Zdenek's English podcast, too. And sometimes these two happen simultaneously. Yesterday, I was teaching a lesson on gerunds and infinitives. There is one free-style activity I like to do to conclude this grammar chapter. And I asked my students whether they would be up for doing this live for the podcast. They unanimously said yes. So if you want to find out more about verb patterns I suggest that you...
Apr 29, 2016•1 hr
It had been a while since the last native speaker on the podcast and that's why about a month ago I took my friend Kevin to a pub in Podebrady (in the photo) to do something about this. The entire conversation was unprepared and we resort to ramble here and there. I made couple of really bad jokes in my attempt to be funny while having conversation with a British person. However, there are some interesting topics we go through as well such as how I met Kevin, board games, Kevin's plans of becomi...
Apr 18, 2016•48 min
The main course of this podcast episode is me reading out a real life experience of attending a speeddating event. Some time ago I wrote a story to teach conditionals in my upper-intermediate class. For those of you who understand, it's basically a guided discovery. I decided to use the same material to records a ZEP episode. The full package includes a story from my real life, an in-depth grammar analysis in which I look at all types of conditionals, tips for teachers and also a request to test...
Mar 25, 2016•46 min•Ep. 243
First of all, in a short introduction to this episode I attempt to explain my podcasting absence. And then.... ....I embark on a musing journey with Peter. We continue playing the game. We come across tough choices such as beauty versus brain, snow versus the Sun, and last but no least one night stand versus relationship. Who do you think has won the game? Zdenek or Peter? As a bonus my guest decided to give you a little task. Listen to find out more.
Mar 19, 2016•34 min
This is another episode with a student of mine. These days I prefer killing more birds with one stone. Petr has actually appeared on the podcast before in the episode called Luke's Roleplays Reborn. We delve into various topics some of which I claim to know nothing about such as women, cars, happiness and also Star Wars. Anyway, see for yourself.
Feb 16, 2016•28 min
This is the second part of the interview with Zuzka. From the feedback I got from you I deduce that you thoroughly enjoyed part one. In this one we embark upon a simple word game which has already been employed in this podcast before. While going through the words that come to mind, I tried to look at some aspects of the language. such as minimal pairs in pronunciation. I might have said a few things inaccurately in the episode as regards the geography. so I hope you forgive me.
Jan 31, 2016•50 min
The time has come to test the loyalty of the Zeppers. As you know not long ago Luke launched a cool brand new competition called Luke's English Podcast photo competition. Despite the fiasco in the previous competition in which we were sending in our podcasts, I entered this one as well. I have sent in a photo of me listening to the podcast while cycling to work in rather freezing conditions. I have seen the photos of all the competitors and I have to admit that am up against some tough oppositio...
Jan 21, 2016•36 min
What is it like to self-study English through the eyes of a 16-year old these days? Zuzka from the Czech Republic will provide you with some useful and often unique tips this episode. She is going to speak about her dreams , LEP, her favourite TV shows, her voluntary work with German kids and much more. You really get a full package here so why don't you and check it out. Another epsiode (number 140) in which we play the popular A-Z game (already done on this podcast with my cousin) will follow ...
Jan 19, 2016•35 min
This year I am teaching a group of Chinese students. From Asia I have only taught some Saudis before. Overall, I have to say that teaching the Chinese is an amazing experience. I thought you might be interested in having people from this country on the podcast, actually hearing their accent and relate to the struggle of learning a foreign language so I kindly asked them if they would be up for recording an episode with me as a part of our lesson and guess what? They gave me a go-ahead. Unfortuna...
Jan 10, 2016•30 min
Hello everyone, it has been ages since my last episode. In fact, I recorded one on 25 December last year but only managed to get round to the publishing now. I hope you won't be disappointed that this episode is thus slightly out-of -date. In it I am looking at statistics of year 2015, and simply attempting to sum up this year in terms of the podcasting..
Jan 08, 2016•23 min
This episode is pretty much a coverage of my first attempts of field testing the knowledge I learnt from the books about how to seduce women.. How successful was I with women this week? What did I get from a female hairdresser instead of her phone number? What did I eat that I haven't since the kindergarten? What helps me to bounce back these days? How did I do at a party? What self-help on the topic of seduction book am I reading at the moment? You can find the answers to all these questions in...
Nov 30, 2015•34 min
In a nutshell, this is a series about my journey of becoming more apt with women upon which I have lately decided to embark. I hope you find it interesting and useful. I'm certain a lot of you may actually relate to this. Let me know what you think.
Nov 22, 2015•32 min
In this episode I talk about the horrific events of terrorist attacks in Paris which happened on 13 November 2015. I mention some common opinions that people I know have shared on FB. Obviously like always this is bound to polarize European society who is increasingly becoming anti-Islamic. I tried to be as objective as possible, taking into consideration as many aspects as I could. I apologize if your views exactly relate to mine. I also tried to reflect the takes of my friends and Czech people...
Nov 16, 2015•48 min
In this episode I spoke to Jirka, the mountain trekker who has already been on the podcast before. This time we attempted to look at the most common English tenses. I employed the didactic method of personalization. The idea is nothing brand-new, I often do this with students in my classes. In this particular case, however, I sometimes I went over the top with my questions and at times made the interview sound somewhat contrived, rather than natural, this applies especially when we are dealing w...
Nov 09, 2015•26 min
Well, it's been long time since I did something crazy on this podcast. :) In this episodes I took on a challenge of doing 100 push-ups live while clarifying 10 random items of vocabulary. Obviously I'm not doing this in one go but rather one step at a time. Anyway, have fun and don't forget to send some feedback, I haven't had much of this lately. :)
Oct 31, 2015•41 min
Long time since I published RTC last time :) I think Honza is at his best in this episode. And he is trying to reach out to you listeners so don't let him him down. Remember to send feedback in form of a comment on Zdenek's English Podcast Facebook group or on my channel at audioboom.fm
Oct 29, 2015•26 min
In this episode I am catching up with my friend Aarony, a football journalist from Bangladesh. Aarony has appeared on the podcast before and I am glad she provided another exclusive skype interview for Zdenek’s English Podcast. What has happened since I last spoke to Aarony? Well big things in fact. She has moved to Amsterdam, in Europe to study there. What are Dutch stereotypes? How is Aarony blending in? What was Aarony’s biggest shock when she arrived? Has she visited any football matches? Wh...
Oct 12, 2015•35 min
For this episode I used a programme which created random questions for me to answer. Admittedly, I wasn't at my best regarding my language abilities and when I listened back to it, I personally found the recording boring. The idea was excellent but it didn't work as I planned it. Perhaps I had bad luck with the questions as well. It was hard for me to record something worthwhile partly because I was not feeling well and was a bit drunk and partly due to its challenge. I had to improvise and thus...
Oct 05, 2015•41 min
This episode was recorded during my last days of CELTA course. It is a light-hearted interview with my classmate, a trilingual speaker called Eva who has a perfect British English accent. In this rather unprepared episode we talk about the experience of taking CELTA, we slander our other classmates and tutors, teach the pronunciation of "should have" and also give a dodgy geography lesson. Later in the episode we are also joined by another CELTA candidate Liisi from Estonia who also makes a grea...
Sep 20, 2015•1 hr
This is the final part of the mini series about CELTA. In this episode I will reveal the secret of the grade I have received in CELTA. Apart from this you are also in for my responses to comments from the listeners who have taken CELTA themselves, a surge of self-pitying moments and a short recording from Luke as a surprise and icing on the cake at the end.
Sep 09, 2015•43 min
This is the second part of the miniseries about how I did in the CELTA course. In this episode I am going to tell you about what my challenges as a teacher were based on tutors'. I will explain what kind of influence Luke's English podcast had on my teaching. What were/are my weaknesses as a teacher? How was I evaluated during the course tutorials? Was my humorous teaching approach always well received? Find the answers in this episode. Lastly, as an icing on the cake I will read out my original...
Aug 23, 2015•39 min
In this mini-series I am going to be telling you about my experience of taking Cambridge CELTA course. In part one I will first explain the long absence from podcasting. And then I will tell you more details such as where, when, why and under what circumstances I took CELTA.
Aug 07, 2015•45 min
This episode features a young bilingual man, half English half Czech. Although he was born and has been living in the Czech Republic his entire life, due to the fact that he has an English father you can't tell apart his accent from the one of a native speaker of English. Therefore, obviously this was a glorious opportunity for this podcast to have such person interviewed. In the interview we discuss various subjects such as Johny's life here in the Czech Republic, his future, his national ident...
Jun 27, 2015•48 min
I recorded this episode as a response to Luke's English podcast double episode called Bad Haircut Situation. Initially this was not meant to be published as it was just supposed to be an ordinary recorded lesson. However, the outcome turned out to be so funny that I had no option other than to actually publish it. I asked Luke if that would be OK and guess what? He said YES! This episode is putting Luke's roleplay into practice by high level non-native speakers of English. Have fun!
Jun 19, 2015•1 hr 7 min
This is the final part of the series with arguably the most interesting and indubitably the smartest class I have ever taught - futue PHD students - what more can I say? I was really lucky to have taught them. In this episode my students shockingly took me aback by giving me an unexpected gift. This is when the podcast recording turned out to become a rather emotional experience for me.
Jun 16, 2015•37 min
Here is the long awaited part 2. It feels so nostalgic to listen to this already and it was recorded only 14 days ago. Enjoy!
Jun 09, 2015•40 min
This episode was recorded due to the success of its predecessor. It is a lose sequel to episode 89 which featured my former upper-intermediate students. This year I have taught a similar group full of charming foreign students who already have degree and intend to study PHD or master's in my country. I managed to convince them that this was a long held tradition and they were willing to help me out. We got together in a bar in my town and then I just switched the recorder on and we hammered out ...
Jun 01, 2015•45 min
This is the second part of the episode recorded in the classroom with the students of mine. In this one I asked them to tell us what it was like for them to move to a foreign country and also to give us some information about their own countries. You are going to hear from Khatia, Alona, Tatevik, Konstantin, Anna and Ryan so the coutries which will be spoken about in this episode are Armenia, Russia, Ukraine, Georgia and the Philippines. I have to say I really enjoyed being part of this as my st...
May 23, 2015•33 min
This is a lesson with my high level students which I decided to convert into a podcast episode.
May 11, 2015•32 min
