2017! What a year! We’ve published more than 50 videos (including 13 live shows) and we’ve had a blast. Thank you everyone for all your support this year. We really appreciate all the comments and suggestions you’ve left for us.
In this 2017 review we look back and show clips from some of our favourite videos. So grab a cup of coffee and come join us. (And stay tuned for lots more in 2018.)
Click here to see last year’s review with our best clips from 2016
2017 review with our favourite clips
Hello and welcome everyone!
Before we start, you might want to go and get yourself a cup of tea.
Or a cup of coffee.
Yeah. Because this is our2017 review video where we look back at some of the videos we’ve made this year.
So this video is going to be long – much longer than our normal videos.
But it’ll be fun.
So make yourself comfortable and come and join us!
Can you remember the first video we made in 2017?
Oh. Was it an English Show?
Oh good guess, but no it wasn’t. I’ll give you a clue.
Shhh! I don’t want to wake Vicki.
Who’s that?
It’s only me.
It was a loose floorboard.
I remember now! It was a video about the words loose, lose and loosen.
That’s right. They sound and look very similar.
It’s easy to confuse them.
And then after that we started the English Show videos.
We should tell everyone what that was about.
OK. At the start of this year we experimented with live shows. We used a switcher and we connected with different English teachers all over the world. We had some great guests and we got them to give us tips about how to learn English, and we played games with them.
Then there was live chat, so we could talk to our viewers in real time.
Yes, that was great.
Our friend Fluency MC joined us every week from Paris and he performed a rap.
Once again it’s Fluency MC, Fluency MC, Once again it’s Fluency MC, grammar through lyrics. Kick it.
And every week Jay used to transport me from Philadelphia over to Fluency in Paris in a different way.
What was your favourite way to get there.
I think it was the hat.
Jay, we’ve had a request.
Really?
Yes, Super Agent Awesome wants me to travel to Paris in your hat. But that’s impossible.
I think I can do it.
I’ll never fit in that.
Well I can shrink you!
I’m here! Well, that was exciting!
You had a hard landing there. How many English shows did we make?
Thirteen. We stopped because the tech was a challenge.
The internet wasn’t reliable and the sound went out of sync.
Or the stream didn’t start on time. So we went back to making normal videos.
I think we did some grammar videos.
Yes, modal verbs – can, could, be able to…
Oh Kathy!
How are you?
Fine.
Do you have a moment?
Can we speak with you about the Boston project?
What about it?
Well, it’s the deadline. We’re a little behind.
Could we have another week?
No way! You need to finish by Friday.
Well then, can we hire an assistant?
Not on your life!
You don’t like the idea then?
In a word, no!
That was our friend Kathy. She plays our mean boss sometimes.
Kathy’s actually a lot of fun and not mean at all.
I just write her parts as the mean boss.
And often you’re mean to me in our videos. Like with the elevator. Do you remember that?
The elevator’s broken down. I had to climb up ten flights of stairs.
Oh dear. Oh! Hallo?
Vicki, I’ve got a package for you, but the elevator’s broken down.
Yeah, I’ve just heard. Don’t worry. I’ll have Jay carry it up.
No problem. I’ll get him to come and collect it now.
Yeah, I do like being mean to you in our videos.
I’ve noticed.
And I like how you trust me, even when you probably shouldn’t trust me.
What’s that for?
I’m going to hypnotize you.
Really?
Yes, just look at the pendant.
OK.
And let your body relax.
You’re not going to make me do anything stupid are you?
Oh no!
Yeah, I definitely shouldn’t trust you. Now what lesson did that come from?
It was about causative verbs– we looked at make, let and have. Grammar again.
Something new we did this year was lots of pronunciation videos.
We went out and met lots of English learners and we asked them to pronounce difficult words.
Comfortables. Ah, no s. Comfortable. Comfortable. Comfortable.
Kweel? I don’t know. Oh, kway, Kway, kway?
Er sixth? Sixth? Sixth? Sixth?
They were terrific, weren’t they?
We met some really nice people.
We also got them to say tongue twisters, so phrases that English speakers find hard to say as well.
Well, they’re good pronunciation practice.
A proper copper coffee, coffee pot. A proper copper coffee pot. A proper copper coffee pot. A proper copper coffee pot.
A proper copper coffee pot. A proper copper coffee pot.
That’s my favourite tongue twister.
We made a song about it.
All I want is a proper cup of coffee. Made in a proper copper coffee pot. You can believe it or not. But I want a cup of coffee from a proper copper pot. Tin coffee pots or iron coffee pots, they’re no good to me. If I can’t have a proper cup of coffee from a proper copper coffee pot, I’ll just have tea.
All I want is a proper cup of coffee. Made in a proper copper coffee pot. You can believe it or not. But I want a cup of coffee from a proper copper pot.
Another pronunciation video we made was about how we say the words ‘can’ and ‘can’t’ in British and American English.
She means ‘can’ and ‘can’t’.
Can and can’t
Can and can’t.
I don’t want you to see.
I can’t see.
Oh well let me try again.
Why? I can’t see.
Do you mean you can or you can’t see?
I can’t see.
That conversation is very realistic.
We really do have to check sometimes to see if we’ve understood one another.
British and American English differences.
We also made a video about the different words we have for clothes.
Oh yeah, and I learnt what suspenders mean in British English.
Closet.
Wardrobe.
Pants.
Trousers.
Pants.
Underwear.
Knickers.
Panties.
Vest.
Undershirt.
Vest.
Waistcoat.
Suspenders.
Braces.
Suspenders.
Another new thing we did this year was phrases from Shakespeare. Expressions we still use today, like ‘foul play’.
Foul play is when you do something dishonest and unfair. Footballers are sometimes sent off because of foul play. But foul play has another common meaning today. If someone dies and it wasn’t an accident or natural death, it’s foul play. So it’s some kind of violent criminal action that results in a death.
What do you think?
He’s dead.
Yes, but what happened?
Hmm. Maybe it was suicide.
Really? I think there was foul play.
You think?
I think there was foul play.
You think?
What videos were most popular with our viewers this year?
Probably the videos about how to learn. There were three. How to think in English, how to remember new words, and ways you can practice English for free.
All our videos are free, so make sure you subscribe to our channel.
And that reminds me. I want to thank some of the viewers who have helped us this year.
With captions?
Yeah.
We write captions for all our videos in English, so if you don’t understand a word, click the cc button and you can read it.
And some of our viewers have been translating the captions into their own language.
This is really helpful for people whose English isn’t very good, and it helps us grow the channel too because the translations appear in the search.
So we want to say a HUGE big thank you to everyone who has been helping with this.
And if you want to help, please start translating too.
I’ll put a link in the details below where you can see a list of our videos, choose one you like, and then translate each line.
It doesn’t have to be a perfect translation, so don’t worry about mistakes. Other people can always improve them later.
Yes, and please remember to translate the titles as well. In fact you can just translate the titles if you don’t have time to translate the whole video.
So what else did we do this year?
Well, we had the interview video.
Did we? What was that?
I interviewed someone very famous.
Hmm. Who was that?
Today we’re looking at English words for money and taxes, and we have an expert to help us: President Trump!
Mr. President. Thank you so much for joining us today.
Well, it’s a pleasure to have you here.
We’ll have to see what happens.
What did happen in that interview?
It was strange, but he taught us lots of vocabulary. And we made another vocabulary video about the verbs notice, find out and realize.
Oh, I fixed your computer. I deleted a lot of files. It’s running much faster now.
I don’t understand, There’s nothing wrong with this computer. It’s that one that has the problem.
Oh, I didn’t realize.
What files did you delete?
That was funny. There was another funny video we made about computers this year – with lots of phrasal verbs.
Yes. And I discovered you had a hidden talent.
I need you to log me onto the network.
You want to get into the system.
Yes. I can’t get in.
Then I need your user ID.
It’s 46821. Please hurry up because I’ve got a conference call starting in five minutes.
OK. I just sent you a link.
Really?
Click on the link and then scroll down.
Ah. A message just popped up.
What does it say?
‘Are you a robot?’ It wants me to type two words in a little box.
Oh. Are you a robot?
No, of course not!
Sometimes robots try to hack into our system.
I’m a human being!
Then just put in the words. Key them in.
It’s impossible. I can’t read them.
Sorry then. I can’t help you.
Why not?
You’re a robot.
I’m not a robot. It’s impossible to read these words.
Sorry, I can’t help robots. Bye.
Ah well. Mission failed. Mission failed. Mission fail. Mission fail. Mission fail. Mission…
All these years together and I didn’t know you could walk like a robot.
I have a lot of hidden talents. But you wrote some crazy parts for me this year. There was one video where I had to wear a wig and make up.
So we always wear something. We can wear things like glasses, hats, name tags, jewelry, wigs and make up.
I think you looked very cute. But what video did you have the most fun making this year?
Definitely going to the Halloween store.
Is it cold in here?
Yes. You don’t think there are any ghosts here, do you? Like spirits of dead people?
No, of course not. Ghosts don’t exist.
Oh good because that would be creepy. If something’s creepy it makes you a little nervous and frightened.
I’ll tell you what’s creepy. I feel like we’re being watched.
Yes, like there’s an evil eye or something.
I really enjoyed that one too. Do you remember the bats?
And another Halloween creature is bats. Bats! They’re creepy.
Creepy but funny too.
It was my favourite video too. But what video was your favourite everyone? Write and tell us in the comments?
So what videos are we going to make next year?
Well we’ve had a lot of requests, so we’ve got a big list. We’d better get working on it.
Yes, have a happy new year everyone and great success in 2018.
We’ll be making more videos to help you.
Bye.
Bye now.