📕 Part 1: Teachers

Do you have a favourite teacher?

Now? Well, I quite like my yoga teacher. He's quite charismatic and knowledgeable without lording it over you. I think my earlier teachers that I liked shared that trait too, actually.

How has your favourite teacher helped you?

Well, I do yoga a lot more independently and effectively now, which I suppose is what a teacher is supposed to encourage, isn't it? He's quite encouraging and gives clear instructions and sets equally clear expectations, which has been very helpful.

Are you still in touch with your primary school teachers?

No, I'm afraid I didn't really get on with the vast majority of them at the time, and I think they'd also probably appreciate a quieter existence without being bothered by their former students asking after them. I do hear about them occasionally, though, but I don't go out of my way to do that either.

Do you have a teacher from your past that you still remember?

Yeah, my favourite teacher in primary school was Mrs Jones. She was excellent, was extremely supportive and kind when I wasn't having a particularly great time. It's a shame I only had her for a year.

Do you want to be a teacher in the future?

Well, I hope so, since I am one now and it's panning out well so far. It's something I've always wanted to do, so I'm quite lucky to have this chance to live my dreams.

Hey, dear listener, teachers! Did you like school? Do you like teachers? They're everywhere. So my favourite teacher. Rory told us about his yoga teacher. You can speak about your primary school teacher. Primary school? When kind of you go to school, and you go to primary school and then secondary school or high school. My high school teacher was the best, or maybe your, I don't know, English teacher, your swimming teacher, your yoga teacher. What other teachers do we have in the world? Like cooking teacher.

Oh, anyone who helps you do anything. Yeah, cooking or...

Music teacher.

You already mentioned swimming teacher. You took the good ones. Yes. Music teacher. Maybe you have a singing coach. So a coach could also be a kind of teacher as well, if you do any sort of sports or activities that need one of those.

Yes, dear listener, you can also talk about a coach. Like a football coach, like a trainer. So a trainer, a coach, a teacher. What other words do we usually use? Therapist.

Is a therapist a teacher?

He's not, huh? He's like a doctor, therapist. Psychologist, psychiatrist. So...

Maybe, maybe a speech therapist is like a teacher, because they have to teach you how to speak.

A speech therapist. Ooh, yes. And also, if I learn some, like if I learn how to speak publicly, it's not a speech therapist, but like a voice instructor.

Or a public speaking coach.

Public speaking coach, dear listener. You see? So you don't have to speak about teachers from school, okay? Like make up some singing teacher, speech therapist, and then you should describe them. So my favourite teacher is charismatic. They have charisma. And knowledgeable. Knowledgeable? They know things.

What is charisma?

What is charisma? Hmm, it's this, you know, special energy of a person, charisma. Charismatic. Ooh, it's C2 word. Charismatic - used to describe a person who has charisma.

Is it? Look at me using these C2 words without even knowing them.

Charisma is a special power that some people have naturally that makes them able to influence other people and attract their attention and admiration. For example, Rory is charismatic. He's got charisma, so people are attracted to him. So Rory, you use this word lord something over you?

Yeah, it's an idiom. But that means behaving like you're better than or superior to another person. Usually, the person you're talking to.

So the idiom is lord it over someone. To behave as if you are more important than someone and have a right to tell that person what to do. So kind of usually teachers think that they are more knowledgeable, smarter than you are, so they like to lord it over us. Rory, could you use this idiom in a sentence about teachers, students, about school.

Well, if you're a bad teacher, then you tend to, well, you know more... All teachers know more than their students. But if you're a bad teacher, then you lord it over your students, and that means you just behave like you are better than they are, which does not do much good for your relationship with people, usually. I don't think people like it very much.

Can I say that I dislike teachers who lord it over people?

Yes, or lord it over their students.

I dislike teachers who lord it over their students. My favourite teacher has helped me a lot. Present Perfect. So depending on what teacher or instructor or trainer or coach you are talking about, you can then say that, yes, they've taught me a lot, or he has taught me a lot. I have a better technique now, in, I don't know, in swimming, for example, or my voice is much better, if it is a speech therapist.

And you could use that to describe just about any teacher, couldn't you? I mean, teachers' jobs essentially are to help you be more independent and effective. So you can always use those words together to describe that.

Yeah, so I've become more independent and effective about any sphere. So yeah, my teacher has helped me a lot because I have become more independent and effective. Or I do something more independently and effectively. And also the teacher is encouraging. They encourage me to do things. They go like, yes, Maria, well done, Maria, you are doing an amazing job, keep it up. And my teacher gives clear instructions, he tells me what to do clearly. And what about expectations?

You set expectations. So I was going to say, while this set of adjectives like encouraging and clear are not C2-level words. If you use the collocations. Like quite encouraging, clear instructions. Or give clear instructions and set clear expectations. Then these collocations are closer to band nine or C2-level.

Yeah. So usually a good teacher sets clear expectations. So what we should expect from a teacher.

I also said, which has been very helpful, which is a relative clause.

Oh, band nine.

Is a relative close band nine grammar? It's definitely more than band five, for sure.

Yeah. When you want to add details, just use which. Which has been very helpful, or which is really helpful. Oh..

Which has been. It's Present Perfect.

I know, right. You can say that I'm not in touch with my primary school teachers, so I don't talk to them, I don't meet with them. I forgot everything about them. So I'm not in touch with - I don't communicate with them. Or I'm still in touch with my school teachers.

Are you still in touch with your school teachers?

Oh, no... I'm not sure they're alive. Yeah...

Are you not sure that they're still alive because they're old or because they were teaching you?

Not funny. If you had good relationship with your school teachers, you can say I got on with my teachers, or I didn't get on with most of the teachers. So I didn't have good relationship with most of my teachers. I didn't really get on with most of my school teachers.

But it's important to pay attention to the use of I'm afraid, which doesn't mean I'm scared, but here I'm afraid I didn't really means unfortunately I didn't. And that's got to be C2 level, surely.

And teachers don't like to be bothered by their former students. So us, we are former students. And they used to be our teachers, but not anymore. So for our school teachers, we are former students. Students they taught in the past, but not anymore. And some people can bother teachers. Bother, like, oh, hello, let's meet up. How are you doing? Like, bother with questions. So you can say tha, well, I'm not sure my school teachers want to be bothered by their former students. And you can say that, yes, I hear about them occasionally. Occasionally like sometimes. But I don't go out of my way to do that. Ooh, Rory, what's this?

If you go out of your way to do something, yes, it is an idiom. But it also means to make an extra effort to do something. So you might go out of your way to talk to your teachers, or you might go out of your way to help someone when you didn't really need to.

Go out of your way to do something. C2, dear listener. Band nine.

Is it? Oh, look at me using all of these C2-level words.

I know. For example, if I go to Rory's home in the middle of nowhere in Scotland, Rory will go out of his way to make me feel welcome. So he will try very hard to do something, especially for someone, for me. And if you don't try very hard to contact your teachers, you can say, well, kind of I don't go out of my way to talk to them, to meet them.

Or I try to go out of my way to talk to them.

You might remember a teacher from your primary school or secondary school or high school. And you can say, oh, yeah, he was excellent, Mr. Yellow. Oh, Mr. Yellow taught literature, he was excellent, like, very good.

Why Mr. Yellow?

Just Mr. Yellow. Why not? You are Rory Fergus Duncan. He's Mr. Yellow. You know?

I feel like my name is more normal. Mr. White. There's a normal name.

Mrs. Orange, you know. And also you can say, oh, Mrs. Orange was a math teacher. She was extremely supportive. So she supported me. It's a shame I had her for a year. So it was a pity. I'm sorry that I only had her for a year. So sometimes, like good teachers teach us for a very, like short time. It's a shame. It's a pity. And usually, the examiner asks you something about the future. So do you want to be a teacher the future? You can say, oh, no, no, it's, it's not my thing, you can say. No, teaching is not my thing. No, no, no, not for me. Or yes, I'd like to be a teacher. For example, I can be a swimming coach or a language instructor, or, I don't know, sports coach. Or you can also say I've always wanted to be a teacher. Like all my life I've wanted to teach swimming or cooking or English or Chinese, or, I don't know, how to cook the best bread in the world.

Or if you didn't, or if you did, but you don't now, you can say I used to want to be a teacher.

Or I'm not planning to become a teacher. No. Rory, do you want a joke?

Do I have a choice?

No, dear listener, you see? So a joke, a joke. So about homework. So, why did the student eat his homework? Yum, yum, yum. A delicious homework.

Why did the student eat his homework?

Why did the student eat his homework? Because the teacher said it was a piece of cake. Did you get the joke? So a piece of cake. Oh, it's like a cake and a piece of cake. Yum, yum, yum. But idiomatically, if something is a piece of cake, it's easy. So I can say, oh, this homework was a piece of cake, it was super easy. So why did the student eat his homework? The teacher said he was a piece of cake. Yeah. Right, okay. Rory, how are you doing? Are you okay, Rory?

No.

Dear listener. Thank you very much for listening, and we'll get back to you in our next episode! Okay? Bye!

Bye!

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