this is an all ears English podcast episode 1907.
three ways the holiday spirit can create Connection in English
welcome to the all ears English podcast downloaded more than 200 million times are you feeling stuck
with your English we'll show you how to become fearless and fluent by focusing on connection
not Perfection with your American host Aubry Carter the IELTS whiz and Lindsay McMahon the
English Adventurer coming to you from Arizona and Colorado USA to get real-time transcripts
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are you visiting a window display or Holiday Market in New York City Seoul South Korea or
another major world capital in today's episode find out how we celebrate the holidays here in
the US and three English phrases you can use to express how these events make you feel
[Music] hello Aubry how's it going today hi I'm great Lindsay how are you I'm excited for the
holidays this is my favorite time of year I know this is such an exciting time of year we are like
a week away from many of the holidays we're right in the middle of the holiday season New Year's is
coming Christmas is coming Hanukkah happen in December so we are super excited to be in this
moment what comes to mind when you think about the holiday season especially in New York City Aubry
yeah that's the thing where you and I both lived in New York there is something very magical about
Christmas in New York the holiday season in New York yes that doesn't really exist here in Arizona
yes we're celebrating the holidays but in New York there's just a different feeling the the like
envelops the whole city with the giant tree in Rockefeller Center and the windows at Macy's right
oh my goodness I loved being there with my family during this time of year it's really amazing right
and I think part of it is because there are so many movies that are based in New York City at
the holiday season right and so we've been part of it you know we've you know songs movies music
all these things the FAO Schwartz department store which is so famous from the movie Big right do you
remember the giant piano which they still have upstairs there my kids played the piano jumping
around on it so fun I love it did you ever go see the Rockettes when you were in New York we did yes
we went and saw the Rockettes with our kids they loved it like stars in their eyes during the whole
show so fun yeah it's hard to replicate a New York holiday season in other parts of the country but
what do you do at home so you don't quite have you know all of the the settings in Arizona but
you guys must have your own little traditions we do for sure we like to make we'll get Coco and
we all have our cocoa and then we drive around to see everyone's Christmas lights because a lot of
people put holiday lights on their homes yes and some of them will have like a big display set to
music almost like what you see at Rockefeller Center of course on a much bigger scale but you
know at their home and and they'll have like a radio station you set it to our kids love that
they look forward to it we do an advent calendar okay every day they get a little toy or a little
chocolate like counting down the days till Christmas do you do an adventure you're cute
no I think we didn't do that but we did have that tradition when I was a kid where we would
drive around um and go look at everyone's light display Lighting Display especially in the 90s
that was hot because you know everyone was like let's just blast this place out with so
many lights the more the better and we do put up a tree right we have all of our ornaments we
have collected ornaments from every trip we take vacations so we have ornaments from all over the
world right a little Sombrero from Mexico and an Eiffel Tower from France and a few from New
York so we kind of love to just like look at our Christmas tree with all of the ornaments from all
over the world I love that yes I love it I love it it sounds like you and I have a lot of similar
traditions and some different ones and you know City Life also brings up this concept of window
shopping and seeing those window displays as we mentioned earlier Aubry now in Arizona do the big
department stores set up these window displays for the holiday season it's definitely not the
same as in New York we went to like Macy's and you know down um where all of those beautiful Windows
the detail was so amazing we went every year and there would be throngs of people just lined up to
see the displays in the windows with all it was fantastic for kids and adults and we don't really
have that in Arizona because we don't have foot traffic in the same way like you drive to a mall
yeah you go in and sure they have like the newest fashions in the windows but they do nothing like
those New York windows with all of the detail no it's never the same and I love the expression to
use the throngs that's a bonus for our listeners today listening to this episode throngs of people
what does that mean I love that word yes like a very dense crowd of people so it's almost hard
to see what's in the window because of all the people trying to see what right anytime you're
in a big crowd I think of the Thanksgiving Macy's day parade we went and saw that once and we were
definitely in a throng of people where everyone's packed in so tight I love it I love it well this
concept this trend while it doesn't really work in Suburban USA it definitely works in a place
like New York City the trend of the super detailed beautiful holiday window displays and the trend is
spreading all over the world right specifically I know that there's a famous a department store that
we're going to touch on in South Korea we're going to touch on that in just a minute and pull in our
listeners and ask our listeners you know is this happening in their countries too but first I want
to take a minute to call out our listeners from South Korea just to say thank you who reviewed
us in South Korea Aubrey what are these names can you go ahead and call them out for us yes we have
genoc song who said they listen to others English when they work out I love that so much ho ho said
listens every day Olivia listens while putting on makeup in the morning and wants to push her
level up to Advanced I think this is so smart to multitask while you listen so smart so smart and
we have siegfried73 who is a police detective from South Korea living in New York City I love that we
have all these listeners from South Korea around the world and you're finding time to improve your
English with us yes I love it so thank you to our listeners from South Korea for reviewing all yours
English and if you haven't left a review yet go ahead and do that now so in General Aubry are
you a big window shopper outside of the holiday season no I'm not at all I have never I did love
looking at the windows in New York but I would never see something in a window and impulsively
go in and buy it I want to research and get the best deal I'm much more likely to buy something
cheap online or you know that's on sale somewhere rather than spending because often the things we
see in these windows are extremely expensive right right I remember when I was teaching
English in Japan I was surprised to see that you know when I asked my Stu my adult students
I'd say hey what are you doing this weekend this coming weekend and one of the top three responses
I would get would be window shopping and I was surprised too because I'm really not into it
I'm not into window shopping it's not part of my personal culture I mean I love looking at these
holiday displays I'll wander in New York City and look at those but to me window shopping all
year long is quite different yes I agree right and in the malls like even just the the smaller sort
of retail department stores I often don't even look at what's in the window yeah I'm not going
to look in the window and say what's the newest latest I'm going straight to the clearance rack
I'm going straight to the sales like okay this was in the window last year maybe six months ago
and now I'm gonna get a good deal on it yeah I'm a bargain shopper yeah you're a bargain shopper
I love it I know well just in general shopping is is a big lift it's a heavy lift right you're
getting in the car we're driving across town and that kind of thing but of course at Christmas
time it becomes more of a an event a chance to socialize with whoever has invited you to this
place this Christmas Market this window display this tree lighting these are all potential moments
of connection so we have an article which we'll link to if this is a blog post to in timeout New
York which lists the hottest window displays in New York city so what are those displays like who
is still doing these really really sophisticated window displays Auburn yeah if you're visiting
New York work you can still see these Bergdorf Goodmans the first one Macy's definitely yeah
Bloomingdale's and Saks Fifth Avenue in fact Sir Elton John helped unveil the new display and
windows November 22nd with the performance of his new song your song I wish I could have been there
for that I would I love that I think that's an old one of his older songs you remember that song like
I I don't want to sing it because I don't want to impede on anyone's copyright but I'm assuming it's
like a new release but you're right that is an older song I do know that song It's a Beautiful
song yeah so they made a whole event around it so I think that this culture of window displays is
still somewhat alive and well in New York but it's just a few of the big big big uh stores
I don't think any of the small mom and pop shops are really doing it but we are seeing this trend
spread around the world there's a department store in Seoul South Korea called shun sege right that I
heard about where they're taking it to another level Opera I watched a video last night about
says the entire front of the building is a movie and lights display where you have the Nutcracker
you see Christmas trees it is beautiful when you step back and look at it I love that I wish I
could be there this time of year so lucky everyone listening who's in South Korea and has seen it or
can go those of you who might go to South Korea I'm so glad that we're sharing that you could
potentially see this because that sounds amazing I would love to see it I love it and in just a
minute we're going to talk about how our listeners can take advantage of this moment where you are
with someone and how can you comment on what you are seeing but we're going to get to that in just
a second okay Aubry so do you think that this tradition though you know we've just named five
department stores that are doing it and we've said that in New York city in the U.S the mom
and pop shops are not really doing this anymore so do you think this tradition of window displays at
the holiday season is dying here's my worry it's so easy to shop online almost all of my Christmas
shopping arrives on my porch via Amazon uh you know not gonna lie and so I think the reason
the stores are willing to put in the expense to do this because those windows draw customers who
then come inside and make purchases and the worry is if they see their business dropping
if they don't see the income from that they may have to stop doing it so as long as there's still
foot traffic in a city where people come see the windows and go in and make purchases then it's
Justified for companies to for these stores to continue doing it but if shopping continues to
go online at the rate it is I worry that it will die out right it makes me think of you know how
cities are changing or I guess it's too soon after the pandemic to really know you know how
are cities changing but I know there is less foot traffic in New York City now than there
was pre-pandemic definitely right that we people are avoiding crowds even now and that's the thing
about New York every time there's something that's really a draw like this the windows Rockefeller
Center ice skating there all the really fun things are also a draw for tourists yes so as a local if
you want to avoid crowds you're not going to feel comfortable going to any of those things
especially during the holidays for sure for sure but really what I want all of our listeners to get
from today's episode is some new vocabulary Aubry this is going to be fantastic because
it's not just the window displays that Bergdorf Goodman or this department store in Korea it's
Christmas markets Last Christmas I was in Germany and visited some of the holiday markets and they
were beautiful beautiful displays amazing food what can we say when we're wandering we're taking
an evening out with our friends native speaker friend what can we say about how this makes us
feel this experience we're going to give you guys three phrases because this is this is always going
to happen there's always going to be interesting things to see especially around the holidays and
we always go out with our friends family this is such a fun thing to meet up with someone and you
want the vocabulary to be able to comment on it in order to make that connection right yeah
so our first phrase I love this one is to say it brings me right back to then you could maybe say
Christmas when I was a kid or when I was young celebrating the holidays with my families I love
that phrase it brings me right back to so guys again you know if you are in your home country
if you're in Korea Japan Germany and you were walking around and you go to this department
store or this Market Holiday Market you can say this in English and what I like about this phrase
is that it's kind of intimate right it's sharing something of where your mind is going due to you
know the details that you're seeing a smell a song that you're hearing in the window display it's
very intimate to say this because it shows the person you're with what's going on in your head
absolutely it's all about Nostalgia right when you're willing to share that something's giving
you that feeling of nostalgia reminding you of good memories in your past that's always going
to be a bonding moment right you're sharing with this person that you care enough about them to
bring them into your past and your happy memories whenever someone does that for me I feel closer
to them for sure I mean I think this could also be a great way to build a business relationship
potentially by inviting someone out for an evening wandering a Holiday Market or looking at window
displays in downtown you know Seoul or in Tokyo or in New York City what do you think Aubry
absolutely or I know a lot of people still travel for work if you're in sales at lots of different
companies and you're looking for something to do in the evening with co-workers this is perfect
right these all of these different experiences things to do and you'll want that language to
be able to talk about the things you're seeing in a very native way 100 so we have two more
phrases for our listener owners what would be the next thing that we could say in English yeah so
this is blank is remarkable that very interesting adjective so for example the attention to detail
in this window is remarkable and that just means it's excellent it's very impressive yeah or the
costumes are remarkable right or the characters are remarkable the music is so remarkable is a
more interesting word right we like to use not common words in English right and there are a
lot of slang things you can say that you know like oh it's very cool it's super interesting but when
you're with co-workers I love this word remarkable it's a little classier a little more professional
sounding I love that we should talk more on this podcast about elevated words right what are the
you know what is the word in everyday slang and then how can you elevate that when you're around
a business audience so good so good there's always an option that makes you sound more
intelligent more professional I love that exactly let's share number three okay all right here's
number three it really puts me in the holiday spirit right so another great way to share how
you're feeling how an experience alongside your native speaking friend is transforming your mind
where is it bringing you right yes this is such a native expression to talk about the holiday spirit
something puts you in the holiday spirit meaning it gives you that good feeling we all experience
around the holidays where we start thinking about giving gifts and serving and helping others and
anything we see which might you know maybe just the lights or the anything can put us in the
holiday spirit yes I love it so Aubry what's the takeaway for today I feel like this is such a good
episode for in a practical sense for words and phrases that our listeners can use but what else
yeah I want I think you guys should really be thinking about if something reminds you of your
childhood gives you that feeling of nostalgia or puts you in the holiday spirit that is a moment
of connection yes exactly exactly and I love how you know we're seeing all over the world in South
Korea and Japan in New York City even in Germany around holiday events and displays and attention
to detail but the thing that brings us together as a world community and lets us connect is English
right we can and the more detailed we can get and the more advanced and how we describe what we're
seeing the better that connection can be Aubry love it yes absolutely wherever you're traveling
English is your way to connect with others you might not speak the language everywhere you go
but more and more you're likely to find someone who speaks English I was grateful for this when
I was in Scandinavia traveling in Denmark Finland I was always able to find someone who could speak
English to me I didn't speak Swedish and Finnish in Danish luckily so we were still able to meet
and connect and I was grateful for that I love it so good so guys if you love aller's English
where we focus on connection not Perfection then go ahead and hit follow on this podcast
right now Aubry I will see you back on here very soon awesome bye Lindsay take care bye
thanks for listening to all ears English would you like to know your English level take our two
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[Music]