A review of highlights from Simple English Videos in 2016. Jay and Vicki look back on some of the events and their favourite comedy skits and sketches.
Click here for more hang out and Q & A videos
Hello everyone. Welcome to the end of 2016 show. We’re going to look back at some of our favourite clips.
And stay tuned for an important announcement about our new lesson schedule and about out live show schedule.
But let’s start with the very first video that we made in 2016. Can you remember what that was? No, I can’t remember. It was on wait, hope, expect and look forward to.
Oh right.
So it was looking at the future.
I remember now.
And it started with a magic trick.
A magic trick, What did I do?
I’ve got a new trick to show you.
Oh good.
Now you sit over here and I’ll sit over here.
Uhuh.
And then I’ll wave my magic wand.
Nothing’s happened. Oh hang on. We’ve changed places.
Yes.
Well, I didn’t expect that.
I’m a good magician. I love magic tricks.
In fact we made a lot of videos about the future at that time. And it all started because our friend Rachel, back in 2015, was pregnant. And I said to her, ‘Oh there’s lots of language points that I always want to teach about the future where I want a pregnant woman’ and she said, ‘Well, we’ll wait till I’m really big and then I’ll come round and I’ll make some with you. And she did. Mhmm. Didn’t she?
It was excellent.
Hi Rachel.
Hi Rachel.
You’re pregnant.
Yes, I’m going to have a baby.
Oh congratulations. That’s wonderful.
Babies are a lot of work.
When’s the baby due.
Next month. We’re very excited.
Get ready for some sleepless nights.
It’s good that I write the scripts, ’cause it means that I get to make fun of Jay.
There’s another video we mde Jay where we’re collaborating with Craig, our friend in Spain, and I got to be mean to you in that as well. As always.
Now the final item on the agenda: the sales training course. We’ve had some excellent feedback on this event. It was very well organized. Our thanks are due to Vicki in Philadelphia for organizing it.
Thank you very much Craig.
Good work Vicki. It looks like you’re due for a promotion. OK everyone. That’s it for this week. See you all next
Tuesday.
Good, eh?
But I organized the sales training course. You told him you did it?
You know, I can’t trust you at all. You’re very untrustworthy. Jay, that was another video. Right.
If someone is trustworthy, they’re reliable. And you can depend on them because they do what they say.
I need to learn to trust you more Vicki.
When companies look for employees, they want people who are trustworthy.
I need to learn to trust you more, Vicki.
How can I do that?
Oh, we could play the trust game.
The what?
The trust game. Turn around.
OK.
That’s right. And then you fall back.
And you’ll catch me.
Yeah! OK.
You didn’t catch me.
I’m just not very trustworthy.
You’re mean to me a lot.
I know. Do you mind?
Well, no. Not really. I know it’s only in fun.
I know. I think it’s in fun.
I like the clips where I get to be mean to Jay best. She’s mean to me a lot. It’s true.
One of my favourites where I’m mean to you is in that video we made about Friday the thirteenth. Do you remember? Yes, I do remember.
How’s it going Jay?
Terrific! I think I have a big new customer
Really? A big one?
Yes, they’re going to order a thousand units. Wow!
They’re gonna call me any minute and tell me. Fantastic!
This could be my lucky day.
Oh that’s so funny. Why?
Well, today is Friday the thirteenth.
Really?
Yes. Some people are superstitious about Friday the thirteenth. They think it’s unlucky. But you’re not superstitious, are you?
No… Well maybe… Well, cross your fingers then.
Oh no!
Oh dear, you’ve spilt the salt.
Oh no!
Throw some over your shoulders… but keep your fingers crossed. Oh. Is that your phone? Keep your fingers crossed.
We did a lot of collaborations in 2016. We had a lot of great
collaborators.
Do you remember World Storytelling Day?
Oh yes. We had Mister-Duncan, we had Jennifer, we were in it and…
Erm, Gabby and we had Rachel and Jason. We all told a different part of a story. It was fun, wasn’t it. It was, indeed.
I can’t show you the video because it’s in a playlist, but I’ll put a link just here. We’ve been so lucky to collaborate with so many good teachers.
What do you think was the most exciting thing that happened to Simple English Videos in 2016? We won the YouTube NextUp 2016 2016 competition. Oh that’s right.
We really won?
Yeah, I’m so chuffed.
Chuffed?
Yeah, I’m tickled pink.
Well me too. I’m thrilled. So what’s our prize?
I’m going to spend a week at the YouTube studios in New York at Creator Camp.
So we can make Simple English videos there?
Yeah, and I get to collaborate with the other winners.
How cool is that!
I’m over the moon.
Me too. I’ll go and pack my bags.
No stop. It’s just for me.
I can’t come to New York?
No. You can stay here and look after the office.
Oh, I never win anything.
Well, we’ve also won some vouchers to spend on production equipment.
Really? Two thousand five hundred dollars. You’re kidding! Microphones, lights, a new camera.
How are you feeling now?
I couldn’t be happier.
NextUp was really exciting. I learnt such a lot. It was brilliant and I made lots of friends and we did collaborations there too.
Bootz and Katz, bootz and katz, bootz and katz.
What are you saying?
Boots and cats. I’m beatboxing for today’s lesson. Remember?
Oh. Can we video it now?
Oh, um. No, I’m busy now. Sorry, gotta go.
Well later then, right?
OK guys. Today’s lesson is on the rhythm of English and luckily we have some help. We have here Inertia. We have Premsy. We have Omni.
Fantastic! English is a stress timed language.
One. Two. Three. Four. One. Two. Three. Four. One and two and three and four. One and then two and then three and then four. One and then a two and then a three and then a four.
So I’ll tell you another thing we did that we’d never done before was we took the camera with us on a road trip. Oh that was so much fun actually. We went from Philadelphia to Cape May, New Jersey.
We’re going on a road trip and you’re coming with us.
I’ll tell you something else that was new that we did this year, was we
started a new playlist on prefixes and suffixes for people to expand their vocabulary. Prefixes and suffixes.
Yeah. An excellent idea.
And it meant that we had to learn new ways to teach words very quickly. I liked teaching washable best.
The label says washable so I can wash it. Washable?
Washable.
Washable?
Not washable!
And we did our first ever song and dance on camera. That’s true. We are not good dancers. When I went to edit this video and looked at how we were dancing, we were terrible. I couldn’t edit anything in time to the music. But remember. Black socks never get dirty.
Jay, you need to put these socks in the wash.
But they’re black.
So?
Black socks never get dirty, the longer you wear them the blacker they get. Sometimes I think I should wash them, but something inside me keeps saying not yet, not yet, not yet. Not yet, not yet, not yet, not yet.
Black socks never get dirty. The longer you wear them the blacker they get.
Sometimes I think I should wash them, but something inside me keeps saying not yet.
Black socks never get dirty, the longer you wear them the blacker they get.
Sometimes I think I should wash them, but something inside me keeps saying not yet.
I think we need to practise our dance moves a bit more before 2017.
The other exciting thing that’s happened to our channel this year is it’s grown. It’s nearly twice as big as it was last January. And we’ve had a lot of friends helping us. That’s so true. All the people who have helped us by making captions. Thank you. You’ve helped enormously.
They’ve created captions in a lot of different languages, right? Yeah. There are over twenty different languages now.
That’s extraordinary. Thank you so much. Thank you so much everyone.
There was another video that we filmed with Rachel. Right. Do you remember the airport video?
Good afternoon
Hi.
Hi, we need to check in.
The machine didn’t recognize my passport.
I can help. Where are you flying to today?
Rio
Recife. We’re flying to Rio and then we have a connecting flight to Recife.
What are you looking for?
My reading glasses.
They’re on your head.
Oh. I had a bottle of water.
I threw that away.
Why?
You can’t take liquids on the plane.
Are you checking any bags?
Yes, just one
Can you put it on the scale?
Sure. Did you pack my gloves?
Gloves? Well it could be cold.
No, it’s summer in Recife.
Oh, of course. Can you check our bag through to Recife?
No, I can’t. You’ll need to pick it up in Rio to go through customs.
And then we have to check it in again for Recife?
That’s right
How much time do we have? How long is our layover?
About two and a half hours.
That’s plenty of time.
I need to ask you some security questions. Who packed your bags?
Me.
Me. We both did
When did you pack it?
Last night.
And has it been with you since you packed it?
Yes.
Yes.
And are you carrying anything for anybody else?
No.
No.
Great. Here are your boarding passes.
Thank you.
Your flight leaves from gate 19 and boarding begins at 11:20.
11.20?
Yes. Your seat numbers are 16E and 16F.
Do we have an aisle seat? Yes, you have an aisle seat and a middle seat.
And how do we get to the gate?
You follow the signs to Departures.
OK. Thank you very much.
Have a great trip.
We will.
I’ve got another security question.
What?
Did we lock the front door?
She was fantastic in that video. She was. And what’s more, she can always remember her lines. Unlike you and me. I know, she’s very patient with us, isn’t she? Right. But she’s brilliant.
And one of our other favourite collaborators is Kathy. Oh Kathy. Our mean boss.
Hi Kathy. How are you?
Fine.
You know we’re both flying to Frankfurt next month?
Yes.
Can we fly business class?
Absolutely not. The tickets would cost five thousand dollars.
It would be worth it for such a long flight.
Business class is really comfortable.
Forget it!
Ah well. It was worth a try.
Kathy is actually one of the nicest people you’ll ever meet, but I keep writing scripts where she’s the mean boss.
What’s your favourite? Oh, my favorite is the one where I’m hiding from you.
Oh Jay! It’s like he’s avoiding me.
Did you manage to get a new car, Jay?
Yes, it’s fantastic. It’s a Lamborghini.
Really?
Yeah. It can go over 200 miles an hour.
I’m surprised. I thought Vicki wanted a small family car.
Yes, but this car’s amazing. It’s a convertible.
How much did it cost?
Uh oh. Gotta go.
Hi Kathy
Hey Vicki.
Was that Jay?
He said he had to go.
I’ve been trying to talk to him all morning. There’s this sports car parked in our drive way and I don’t know whose it is.
Ah…. I think he’s trying to avoid you.
There was one collaborator who I found very difficult to work with. Oh but he’s my favorite collaborator. You know who I mean. I know who you mean – Carter. I do. Carter is the best puppy. He really is. He’s absolutely terrible on set.
This lesson’s about adverbs of frequency, but really it’s about me, Carter. I’ll teach you how to look cool.
People often ask me about my life as a fashion model.
Well, I’m always busy. I generally have two or three photo shoots a day and I’m frequently on the cover of top magazines.
I have a lot of fans in social media – millions of followers. I post to Facebook once or twice a day and I tweet and snap chat. And I travel a lot. I was in Paris last week and London last month.
A fun fact – I know I look very fit but I don’t usually work out. I normally take a walk three times a day but that’s all.
How often do I go out to parties? Well every night, but I am rarely home later than 3 am. I hardly ever stay up till 4. I’ve got to look my best, you see.
Yes, it’s not easy being a star like me. It’s a dog’s life, but I never complain. It’s just the price I have to pay for being famous.
But the biggest project we started this year was live shows, where we’ll stream live over (via) YouTube. Live television is the most exciting thing in the world to me. He used to be a television producer. And now we have electronic equipment that lets us switch three or four cameras, four computers, take calls in from overseas, put them all together. It’s really exciting. Live shows are great.
We had lots and lots of rehearsals this year but we only actually did one live show. That was last week.
Hey! Come on everybody. It’s gonna star… who did that?
It’s good to be back working with Jason again, isn’t it. He is
excellent. He’s a great teacher and he’s a great rapper. He’s a rapper.
Not only are we working with Jason, but you get to fly to Paris.
It was great. We learnt a lot. But it was chaos at the beginning. Before the show started, we’d had lots of checks. And then four minutes before it began, what went wrong?
Jason’s audio, Jason was collaborating with us from Paris, his audio went out of synch with his video.
My mike stopped working and then someone came to the door and Carter started barking.
So we thought all of this was going out on the stream. Well, it turns out I hadn’t actually pressed the button to start the show. So we recovered from that. It looks pretty good.
so we’re planning to have live shows on Sundays in 2017. Put the dates in your calendar now.
Something you should know about the live shows: in order to get notified about when they are, you need to sign up for our mailing list,
I’ll put details below, and also, click the little bell button. And then when you’re on YouTube, it will say when we’re streaming.
And there’s also going to be a change in the schedule. Yes. We’re going to start publishing our lessons on Thursdays next year, and also we’ll have the live shows on Sundays.
The other thing I want to do before 2016 is over is say a BIG thank you to you, our subscribers. Thank you so much. We’ve had such a wonderful response from all the people out there. It’s really gratifying.
It’s really nice to see people clicking that like button, sending us comments, suggesting new videos to us. Please keep it coming. We love hearing from you.
So now we just need to say Happy Christmas to everybody.
Happy Holidays to everybody. He says ‘Happy Holidays’ ’cause he’s American. We’re going to be having a British and an American Christmas in our house this year. Let me show you how we’re going to be celebrating.
What are you doing?
I’m getting ready for Santa.
Father Christmas!
Yes, and I’ve got him milk and cookies.
Milk and biscuits.
Yeah.
We give him something stronger in the UK.
Brandy? Yes, he’s an adult. And mince pies.
Mince pies with chopped meat?
No, with currants and sultanas.
Mmmm,
Beats milk and cookies, doesn’t it? Merry Christmas everyone.
Happy holidays.