It's official. I've left the Czech Republic. Where did I move to and why? How difficult was it to decide and how will this affect ZEP? Listen to this episode to find out more. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Facebook - join Zdenek's English Podcast Facebook group, like, share and comment on Facebook teacherzdenek.com - my website (work in progress) I-tunes - write a brief review on I-tunes and help more people find this podcast...
Aug 23, 2019•58 min•Ep. 484
In this episode, I talk to Max about German stereotypes.
Aug 18, 2019•44 min•Ep. 483
Episode 265 was recorded at a lake in Podebrady. This time I talk to my former student from Germany called Max whose English level is almost C2. We mainly discuss Max's life here in the Czech Republic, his studies, and learning English.
Aug 10, 2019•39 min•Ep. 482
In this episode, I talk to a student from Zambia about a motivational speech he has given at the graduation ceremony. We also talk about his country and what it is like for him to study in the Czech Republic.
Aug 04, 2019•24 min•Ep. 481
In this episode, I talk to one of the most articulate students I have taught this year. We talk about the country of his origin, but also about the country he spent most of his life in. We also chat about the benefits of living and studying in the Czech Republic.
Jul 27, 2019•33 min•Ep. 480
In this episode, I speak to Marek Kiczkowiak, Ph.D. who is the founder of TEFL Equity Advocates and Academy. Marek is something like Martin Luther King of English Language Teaching. Essentially, he strives to obliterate the so-called "native speaker bias". In other words, he is fighting for the rights of non-native English teachers. He does that by researching this topic academically and finding some very compelling evidence. You can get a taste of his arguments in this episode. As you all know,...
Jun 27, 2019•38 min•Ep. 479
In this episode I go through the conversation I had in episode 260 with my fellow DELTA sufferer, native speaker from England Louis and clarify phrasal verbs which appeared in it. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Facebook - join Zdenek's English Podcast Facebook group, like, share and comment on Facebook teacherzdenek.com - my website (work in progress) I-tunes - write a brief review on I-tunes and help more people find this podcast...
Jun 18, 2019•52 min•Ep. 478
I decided to say hi to my DELTA classmate from England Louise and while I was on it, I thought to myself why not invite her onto ZEP. It was a wise decision. This episode is truly action-packed. Louise passionately describes her adventures working in different countries, compares the mentality of the learners, and adds a few anecdotes including how she ended up settling down in Romania. We also talk about English banter and how non-British people find it difficult to get it. ____________________...
Jun 12, 2019•34 min•Ep. 477
Do you remember Clare without "i"? She has featured on ZEP several times before. I wanted to give you a taste of her new podcast "It's Not That Deep" so I came up with an idea. Essentially, I took 10 minutes from one of her episodes and decided to pick apart the language for you with a special emphasis on pronunciation. If you like Doctor Who, then you will be pleased to hear that the chosen episode from Not That Deep podcast is about this popular British TV show. As for the pronunciation analys...
Jun 01, 2019•56 min•Ep. 476
This episode was recorded during class while playing a game where we ask each other simple questions. The episode features a lot of guests so there some talking over each other, butr generally speaking it should be well understood. The tone is very light-hearted. I also have one important disclaimer. during the episode, one of the students keeps mentioning probably the most atrocious man in the history of mankind Hitler in a slightly joking way. I know this is not a laughing matter, but there is...
May 28, 2019•31 min•Ep. 475
This episode features a high profile guest Martin from a well established Rock 'n Roll English podcast. After introducing the guest of this episode, we spend some time talking about a football match between England and the Czech Republic which took place a few months ago. Naturally, we also touch on Brexit, admittedly much to Martin's disgust. At the end Martin tells us about his current projects inluding the RnR Family. ___________________________________________________________________________...
May 14, 2019•32 min•Ep. 474
This episode is a conversation class with my student Olga. I put her on the spot a bit by coming to our private lesson and asking her to record a podcast interview with me about her profession. She is a dental hygienist so she explains what her profession involves and gives a lot of valuable advice about how to clean our teeth, etc. _________________________________________________________________________________________ Facebook - join Zdenek's English Podcast Facebook group, like, share and co...
Apr 27, 2019•49 min•Ep. 473
This episode was supposed to be published for patrons only, but I changed my mind about it because it is too funny and cool to have only a few people listen to it. Why was Rubick almost arrested in his week in the Czech Republic? What is Salem's superpower? How did Rami lose 40 kilos in 2 years? What do the guys think of each another? Which one of them has anger issues? Which one is a history freak? Listen to this episode to out.
Apr 13, 2019•58 min•Ep. 472
In this episode I talk to my students Rubick from Lebanon and Salem from Syria about the Middle East. We talk about this world region and its specific problems.
Apr 06, 2019•53 min•Ep. 471
In this episode I catch up with my Irish friend Kay who lived in the Czech Republic last year and is now working at a university in Manchester. As it was recorded on St. Patrick's Day, we naturally talk about this world-famous Irish tradition. We also touch upon accents, Czech Easter, Kay's job, and her future plans.
Apr 03, 2019•54 min•Ep. 470
In this episode I talk to my advanced student Honza about bowling. He is a bowler and he knows everything you need to know. Prepare for a lot of vocabulary related to this sport.
Mar 26, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 469
This is another episode from the series of "Flashcards Vocab". In this particular one I use a lot of examples from British politics, but I also talk about terrorism, and football.
Mar 17, 2019•38 min•Ep. 468
In this episode, I read out and respond to ten messages/emails I have recieved in the last few months. Most of them praise my work I do with this podcast, some of them are a reaction to my appearance on Luke's English Podcast, some offer a unique insight into my listeners' lifes and ambitions which are often highly relatable to me personally, and there is even an email which helps me identify my own inadequacies. ___________________________________________________________________________________...
Mar 10, 2019•1 hr 12 min•Ep. 467
In this episode, I talk to my Claire. This is a light-hearted chat, but make no mistake, it also has a very thoughful educational motive. Essentially, I and Claire teach you selected binominal phrases such as little by little, ups and downs, by and large, and many more. The quality of the recording is not ideal since it was recorded in a café and naturally the recorder picked up a lot of background noice, but it is audible, neverthless. ___________________________________________________________...
Feb 18, 2019•33 min•Ep. 466
In this episode I take a light-hearted approach to teach a pronunciation phenomenon called glottal stop /ʔ/- a sound that is often used in spoken English to replace sound /t/. Phonetics and this sound in particular is something I have been interested in for a while and I am delighted to talk about it here on ZEP. I will present to you a lot of examples of words (and sometimes not just words) where this sound appears in English language and also as a bonus I will do some tongue twisters....
Feb 09, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 465
It's been a while since I had another podcaster on my podcast. So I was very pleased when Dustin from Board Gaming with English (now renamed into Board Gaming with Education) agreed to come on to ZEP. Dustin is an English teacher from Nebraska in the U.S. who is currently working at a university in Taipei (Taiwan). This is a no nonsense episode in which you can naturally hear us talk about our favourite board games we use in an English class, such as Codenames, Werewolf, Trapwords, Pandemic. We ...
Jan 30, 2019•43 min•Ep. 463
This time I talk to my English friend Marvin about Petr Cech, a Chelsea (and Czech) legend and currently an Arsenal player, who has recently announced his retirement from the world of football. After the interview, there is also a short language analysis.
Jan 22, 2019•53 min•Ep. 462
In this episode I reflect on the experience of featuring in episodes 569 and 570 of Luke's English Podcast. I will tell you how I felt before, during, and after the interview with Luke, and generally explain how much this meant to me. The second part of this episode is an attempt to self-correct some of the more glaring mistakes I made in part 1 of the interview. Infamously, this episode has the Fixer in it - a voice in my head whose purpose is to help with the realisation of my mistakes, but wh...
Jan 16, 2019•39 min•Ep. 461
In this episode I talk to John from Canada, another playtester of Kingdoms of Deceit. We talk mostly about Canada related topics and I also ask John to help me clarify a few words which start with letters "can". It's has a feel of a lighthearted conversation, rather than a deep discussion. --- Facebook - join Zdenek's English Podcast Facebook group, like, share and comment on Facebook I-tunes - write a brief review on I-tunes and help more people find this podcast Email to teacherZdenek@gmail.co...
Jan 09, 2019•42 min•Ep. 460
This episode has two main parts. The first part is a classic New Year's Eve Road to Civilisation with my cousin Honza and also an additional guest Nrup. The seconds part is an audio version of the live Facebook video I did earlier the same day. If you are a Spurs fan, I highly recommend not listening to this one.
Jan 01, 2019•57 min•Ep. 458
This episode was recorded on a train last winter. I kept postponing publishing it because I always thought it was a bit weird. I have now changed my mind, though. It features my good friend Nrup from India. We were travelling from Podebrady to Prague and we decided to kill time by playing a well-known word game and recording our struggle as a ZEP episode. I wanted to raise the challenge so I modified the rules of the game in such way that we were supposed to use adjectives only. Especially becau...
Dec 29, 2018•46 min•Ep. 457
This episode is dedicated to Czech people. I attempt to give you a balanced view of what it is like to be Czech by presenting my top 5 good and bad things about our country and its people. There might be some contentious subjects that I bring up. Please understand that these are all my personal views and I am always open to a debate about everything I argued there. I am even prepared to change my beliefs if you convince me. In this episode I talk about the Czech president and why I have very lit...
Dec 28, 2018•58 min•Ep. 456
In this insanely rambly episode I introduce you a new competition. You have exactly one week to send me an email with a few pieces of information namely (your name, a country you come from, how long you have been a listener, how you found out about ZEP, your favourite episode). Listen to this episode to find out more including what the prize is. I will be announcing the winner in a live video on FACEBOOK on 31st December 2018 at 12 a.m GMT+1 (midday, not midnight). So this is the deadline. All o...
Dec 23, 2018•27 min•Ep. 455
In this episode I talk to Nick, a student of politics from England, about Brexit. Nick is currently in the middle of writing an essay on Brexit and thus has some fresh insight into the whole subject. What is Brexit? Why did the UK vote Brexit? Is there a deal? Is there a chance this could all be reverted? What are the current options? This conversation might be slightly geeky and you might have to google names of politicians, but I think if you are into politics or care about the future of Europ...
Dec 22, 2018•32 min•Ep. 454
This is part 2 of the class with Barbara. We actually start off this episode by speaking German, which is kinda hilarious. Barbara tells us what it was like living in Austria and compares that to her life in the Czech Republic as well. Later we touch upon Brexit as we talk about Barbara's future plans. And last but not least, Barbara talks about the TV series she is keen on. There were slight technical problems caused by full memory of the recording device which also resulted in an abrupt end of...
Dec 15, 2018•26 min•Ep. 453
