Do you like weddings? 💍 | Improve your listening with Real Easy English — Transcript

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1. 0:00Hi Neil. How are you?
2. 0:01I'm fine, thank you.
3. 0:02I've got a question for you, Georgie.
4. 0:04When was the last time you went to a wedding?
5. 0:09The last wedding I went to was in June,
6. 0:12but I've actually got one coming up very soon in Scotland.
7. 0:16Ah! That sounds exciting.
8. 0:17We're talking about weddings in this episode,
9. 0:21but people need to remember something, don't they?
10. 0:23They do. They can find a free worksheet
11. 0:25and transcript to practise what they've learned at bbclearningenglish.com.
12. 0:36Well, Georgie, you have a wedding coming up and
13. 0:39you've already been to one recently.
14. 0:42Do you like weddings?
15. 0:44Yes, I really do enjoy weddings, actually.
16. 0:47I really enjoy social events.
17. 0:49I enjoy meeting new people.
18. 0:51You often meet lots of new people.
19. 0:54It's nice to see a celebration of love – two families coming together as well.
20. 1:00I like to watch those dynamics.
21. 1:03There's often a lot of nice food. What about you?
22. 1:05Do you like weddings?
23. 1:07I do. I do like...
24. 1:08I do like a wedding, yes, but I haven't been to one for ages.
25. 1:14A few years ago, I seemed to go to a wedding every week of my life,
26. 1:21and they became...
27. 1:23it became a bit samey – like the same thing again and again.
28. 1:28But I haven't been for ages now, so I would like to go to a wedding.
29. 1:33Yes. I won't reveal my age, but you could say I am in the wedding era,
30. 1:39so there's lots of weddings in the calendar!
31. 1:44And you're right – it can get a bit exhausting.
32. 1:47But in general, I really...
33. 1:50I just enjoy a party.
34. 1:51Is there anything that you don't like about weddings?
35. 1:56Yes, there is.
36. 1:58There are often quite a few hidden costs because,
37. 2:03especially if you have a role in the wedding – for example, bridesmaid, maid
38. 2:09of honour – there are responsibilities before the wedding even starts.
39. 2:14So, in the UK we do... often do things called hen parties or stag parties,
40. 2:20and at the moment it seems a lot of people are going away for a weekend.
41. 2:25It can be expensive and then at the wedding itself you often have to –
42. 2:32I mean, maybe not, but sometimes you buy a new outfit.
43. 2:37It can be expensive to get there.
44. 2:39Sometimes people do weddings abroad as well and you have to buy flights,
45. 2:43so it can get pretty expensive.
46. 2:47It sounds like you really don't like weddings.
47. 2:49Neil, I just told you all the things that I do like about weddings!
48. 2:54There's loads of things.
49. 2:56It's true though. Weddings can be stressful if you...
50. 3:00especially if you have a role.
51. 3:02I was a best man once at a wedding,
52. 3:06and that meant that I had to organise lots of things,
53. 3:09and I had to make a speech in front of lots of people – lots of people
54. 3:16of different generations, so it's quite difficult to say something
55. 3:23that's interesting and appealing for everyone.
56. 3:27Yeah, speeches are another thing that I like about weddings, actually,
57. 3:32because you can hear what the people closest to the bride and groom,
58. 3:38what they... how they feel about them.
59. 3:40But there's a downside.
60. 3:43Sometimes they can be too long and too boring.
61. 3:46I hope yours wasn't too boring.
62. 3:50Thanks...!
63. 3:50I'm sure it wasn't.
64. 3:53It went down quite well.
65. 3:55So, Neil, you are married.
66. 3:56Can you tell us a bit about what your wedding was like?
67. 4:00Well, my wedding was very, very low key and untraditional.
68. 4:06So, it wasn't like a typical British wedding.
69. 4:11We just went to a registry office to get married, and then we went for a meal,
70. 4:17and then we went to a karaoke bar.
71. 4:21Oh, wow!
72. 4:22And everybody dressed up in costumes and sang and danced.
73. 4:25That sounds like so much fun.
74. 4:26I wish I was there.
75. 4:28So, what's your ideal kind of wedding?
76. 4:31Traditional, or low key like mine?
77. 4:35Maybe not traditional or low key.
78. 4:37I think I would just...
79. 4:40my priority would be to just have as many people that I know in one place,
80. 4:45and maybe I'd like to have some live music.
81. 4:50I just want everyone that I know to be dancing together and meeting each other.
82. 4:55That's my... that's what I imagine.
83. 5:03Let's recap some of the vocabulary we learnt during this conversation.
84. 5:07We heard about some roles during a wedding.
85. 5:09So, traditionally a woman or bride will choose their closest friends
86. 5:14and family to be bridesmaids.
87. 5:16And the main bridesmaid is called the maid of honour.
88. 5:20For the man, or groom, I mentioned that there is a best man
89. 5:25and the best man is a close friend, sometimes the brother of the groom,
90. 5:31and the best man has certain responsibilities – making a speech,
91. 5:36organising certain things.
92. 5:38Yes. I mentioned hen parties and stag parties,
93. 5:41and these are often organised by the best man and the maid of honour.
94. 5:46They're celebrations that happen before the wedding.
95. 5:49We used the word traditional.
96. 5:51Now, a traditional wedding is the kind of wedding that most people
97. 5:55in a particular culture expect when you mention the word 'wedding'.
98. 6:00And you, Neil, didn't have a traditional wedding.
99. 6:02You described your wedding
100. 6:04as low key, which means that it was quieter, fewer people,
101. 6:08and you even did karaoke, which I guess is not traditional.
102. 6:12That's it for this episode of Real Easy English,
103. 6:14but don't forget to sign up for our newsletter so you can find out
104. 6:19about all the great programmes that we make at BBC Learning English.
105. 6:22You can find it on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.
106. 6:26And we'll be back next week with another conversation in easy English.
107. 6:30See you then.