Last weekend, my wife and I went to a wedding. One of her co-workers got married. The wedding took place at 11 a.m. on Saturday morning on the other side of the city from where we live. Now, usually on Saturday morning, we tried to sneak in an extra hour or two of sleep, but last week was different. We were up and at ‘em early. We had outfits to choose, clothes to iron, and at least in my wife's case, hair and makeup to do.

When we were ready to go, we left our apartment, and we walked the 15-minute walk to the subway station to whisk off across the city to the wedding hall. Now, although the venue was only around 15 kilometers away from our house, the trip still took close to an hour. And I guess that's just what happens when you live in a big city. There are many obstacles in your way that stop you from going from point a to point b.

There are people, stoplights, buildings, traffic, and all of those things, and sometimes they just get in your way. I often joke to my wife that if there were a street that went directly to our destination, then I could probably run there faster than she could by traveling on public transportation. But don't get me wrong, the public transportation here in Seoul is world class. It's cheap, it's clean, it's quiet, it runs on time, it's safe, you really couldn't ask for more.

And although I haven't ridden all of the public transportation systems in the world, I'm lucky to have ridden quite a few and I have to say that I think Seoul is the best. I'm not just playing favorites because I live here. I honestly think it's world class and one of the best in the world. And even for people who don't speak Korean, it's really easy to navigate and it takes you wherever you need to go.

So, when my wife and I were riding to the wedding, I noticed just how eerily quiet the Saturday morning subway was. And it got me thinking about Canadian public transportation and the differences between what we have here in Seoul and what is available in Canada. I don't want to throw Canada under the bus, pardon the pun, but there are quite a few differences between riding public transit in Seoul and riding back in Canada. And one of those differences crossed my mind while I was going to the wedding last week.

My name's Andrew, and this is bonus episode number 45 of the Culips English Podcast. Thank you for joining me today for an English study session. I'm so glad to have you here with me.

So today in this episode I was actually planning originally to talk about going to the wedding and some of the other things that I got up to over the weekend. But as I was brainstorming and writing down some notes and preparing for this episode, I started thinking about riding the subway to the wedding and some of the thoughts that were going through my head during that trip.

And for some reason, I started comparing riding the subway in Seoul to what it's like to ride public transportation back home in Canada. And then I remembered an interesting story that happened to me when I was visiting my hometown back in January and I rode the bus. Now believe me, I could probably go on and on here and tell you about all of these things, about what I did on the weekend and about that story that happened to me when I was riding the bus.

But I'll save you from that torture. Don't worry, I'll try to keep things short and I'm just going to focus on one story in this episode about an interesting encounter that I had while I was riding the bus back in Canada. So, the plan here for today then is that I'll start by telling you that story, and of course, along the way I'll break down any difficult or interesting vocabulary that just might happen to come out of my mouth in the process.

I'll also share some updates about some interesting things that we've got going on behind the scenes here at Culips. And then finally, toward the end of the episode, I'm going to go into more detail about one of the useful expressions that you'll hear me use in this episode that I recommend adding to your vocabulary to increase, not only your English word power and knowledge, but also your speaking and listening skills. There's a 100% free transcript for this episode.

It comes in an interactive version that's best for studying with on digital devices, like your tablet, or phone, or computer. And there's also a PDF version that's good for all of you who like to study with something physical, because you can just print out the PDF and then feel free to write or scribble all over it when you're making notes. I think the transcript is a great resource for all English learners. For those who may be at a lower level, you can follow with the transcript while you listen.

And for those who want more of a challenge, then you could listen first, and then after, check the transcript to see how much you understood. To get the transcript, just visit our website, Culips.com, or follow the link in the description for this episode.

So let me tell you the story of what happened to me while I was riding the bus in Kelowna, my hometown, which is located in Canada. Now the buses in Kelowna are for the most part totally fine. I mentioned a little bit earlier that I didn't want to throw Canada under the bus and to throw somebody under the bus is an idiomatic expression that means to blame or betray someone in order to benefit yourself. It's an expression that's very visual.

You could imagine pushing someone in front of a moving bus so that that person dies or gets injured while you stay safe. So, if you throw somebody under the bus, then you're kind of saying something bad about someone when they can't defend themselves. And I don't wanna throw the public transportation system of my hometown under the bus because they're not here to defend themselves. But I will say that for the most part, the buses in Kelowna are fine.

I've never had a bad experience on the bus and they're generally pretty clean too, although maybe from time to time you'll see some graffiti or something like that written behind a seat. But in general, they're quite clean. Now, I can't say that they're great on running on time though. It's common for the bus to be either early or late by like 10 to 15 minutes in either direction.

And because for some bus routes, the bus only runs once or twice an hour, it can make missing the bus really inconvenient. You can end up being really, really late if you miss your bus. So, because of that, it's always best to get there early so that you don't miss it. So, that's quite inconvenient to be honest. But I don't think I've ever had that happen here in Seoul.

The buses and the subway always seem to be right on schedule, which is just fantastic. Another difference between the two systems is that here in Seoul, no one will ever talk to you on the bus or on the subway. Well actually, I guess I shouldn't say never ever. Very, very rarely is probably more accurate. I very, very rarely have had a person come up and talk to me while on public transportation here. But usually in those situations, they didn't really want to strike up a conversation.

It was more like something else motivating them. To be honest, usually it's people who want to try and get me to join their church or their religion, something like that and they would usually just hand me a little pamphlet and then move on. But I've never had the experience of someone actually trying to start a conversation with me randomly. I've never had that in all of my years here in Korea.

But back in Canada though, it's quite different and I don't want to say that people try to converse with you often. I think most people just mind their own business and don't want to talk with strangers. But there's always a possibility that someone will try and chat with you on public transportation and that's exactly what happened to me the one time I rode the bus back in Kelowna when I was visiting in January. I only rode the bus once and it did happen that one time.

So, let me tell you how the conversation went down. I got on the bus, and I paid with change. I paid with quarters to be exact. I guess these days most people just pay by tapping their bus pass or their bank card on the little machine when you get onto the bus, but because I was just visiting I didn't have a bus pass and my Korean bank account wasn't connected to the Canadian bus system, so I couldn't use that option either, so I just paid my bus fare with change and I got on the bus I walked to the back and I found an empty seat.

I was riding the bus in the evening and the bus was pretty empty. There were only a handful of other passengers riding. That's a good expression. There were only a handful of other passengers. A handful of something is the expression we use when we want to talk about a small amount of something. So, a handful of passengers on the bus means that just a small number of people were riding the bus.

Or if I were to say for example a handful of people went to a party, then we could imagine that maybe only 4 or 5 people went to the party. Or maybe you have a favorite soccer team, and that team happens to be horrible, and they only won a handful of games last year. Well, then that means that they lost almost all of their games and only won a small amount of them. So, back to the story.

There were only a handful of people on the bus, and as I got on the bus I sat down in an empty seat toward the back. And a guy who was probably around 30 years old or so, he was younger than me, he was sitting across the aisle on the seat next to me and as soon as I sat down, he took out his earphones and he said, "Paid with change, hey? Me too." And what do you do in that kind of situation?

Like, he wants to bond with me over the fact that we both paid our bus fare with change instead of a bus pass? It's kind of weird, I guess. I kind of felt a little bit strange in that moment. So, I just replied like, "Yup." And then I was expecting the conversation to die out. But I guess that that guy wanted to keep chatting because he kept trying to keep the conversation going.

He continued by saying something, and I don't remember exactly what he said, but he said something like, "Yeah, I'm just on my way home now. I just got off work." And again, I replied with a kind of curt or blunt reply. I said something like "Oh yeah cool, right on." Now I just used two interesting words there. I don't know if you picked up on them. Curt and blunt. Those are two words we can use to describe replies that are short and not extremely friendly.

Like, I wasn't being rude, and I think I'm always polite, but I wasn't exactly trying to keep the conversation going in that moment. I think I've mentioned before on Culips that I'm actually pretty introverted and shy, and I'm also not a huge fan of talking with random strangers on the bus. So, I just tried to keep things friendly and light, but at the same time I tried to signal that I wasn't really interested in keeping the conversation going.

Now either my signal wasn't very clear, or this guy wasn't very good at reading people, but he kept going and he said something like, "Yeah, I just got off work. I'm a bartender at a restaurant near the airport." Now at this point I had a decision to make. Should I try and just continue to ignore him, or should I bite and keep the conversation going? That's a fishing expression, right? To bite. Like when a fish bites, it accepts the bait and gets caught by the fisherman.

Similarly, when someone bites on an offer, like the offer the guy on the bus made me to enter into a conversation with him, that means that you accept the offer and you're kind of caught by the person who is making the offer. So, I bit. I bit his offer, I accepted his offer, I tried to ignore the bus guy, but eventually I ended up just talking with him.

And I think once I realized that he was just a normal guy, he wasn't a weirdo and maybe he just seemed a little bit lonely and like he wanted someone to talk with, in that moment I put my guard down and I didn't mind speaking with him. So, I asked him a little bit about his job, and he asked me about where I was going.

Now this bus trip happened to occur on the night of my brother's birthday party, and I talked about that birthday party a few bonus episodes ago, so you might be familiar with what I did that night. So, I told this bus guy where I was going, and he told me that that wasn't a good place to go. And that I should go to a different place instead, but it turns out in the end that he was wrong about that, and I had a great time at my brother's birthday party.

But anyways, we talked a little bit about the different restaurants and bars in Kelowna because he works in that industry, right? He told me he was a bartender. And he also asked me about where I was from because to him it seemed like I didn't know much about the city. So, I explained to him that Kelowna is my hometown but that I hadn't lived there for at least 15 years.

And he shared with me that he was also pretty new to town too and he had only moved to Kelowna last year from Ontario, but because he worked in the food service industry, he knew a lot of the best restaurants and bars in town. So, we continued to chat about what it's like to live in Kelowna while we were riding the bus until suddenly, we reached his stop. And as he stood up and prepared to get off the bus, he turned around quickly and said something like, "Yeah, well, it was nice talking with you. Have a good one."

And I smiled and I said, "Yeah, have a good one, man. Good night." And I felt in that moment kind of appreciative of the unexpected conversation and the chance to get to connect and share with a stranger. And as the bus pulled away, I was thinking about how sometimes the most unexpected interactions can lead to really interesting and meaningful experiences. And I guess it was meaningful because here I am talking about it two months later and sharing this story with you.

So, I made a mental note that maybe I shouldn't be so closed off to having conversations with strangers. Although I think it's good to keep your guard up and always be cautious and safe, they can also lead to really interesting experiences. So, I'll try to keep an open mind about that in the future, going forward, even if that kind of conversation may be a rare occurrence here in Seoul.

There's a lot going on behind the scenes at Culips right now, and I just wanted to let you know about two projects that we're currently working on. The first project is a major improvement to the comment and discussion form feature that's on our website. And we've come up with a solution that I think is going to make it a whole lot easier for the Culips community to connect and interact with each other.

There are tons of English learners around the world who study with Culips, and we want to make it super easy and super simple for all of you guys to communicate with each other and to improve your English together. So, we're working on this project right now and I don't think it will take too long to build and we should be ready to introduce it to you within the next month or so I'm hoping.

The second project we're working on is nicknamed the Culips Conversation Club, C.C.C. Culips Conversation Club. What do you think of that name? I'm not sure if we'll keep it or change it. Actually, I'd love to hear your opinion. You could let me know what you think of it, or if you have a better name, then the Culips Conversation Club, please tell me and let me know. But anyways, let me explain what it is.

So, the Conversation Club will be a place where you can actually practice your English-speaking skills in a small-group setting with other English learners who are just like yourself and also will have a native English-speaking teacher there as well. Now we're hoping that this will solve a big problem that many of our listeners have, which is that it's actually really hard to speak English when you live in a place where there aren't too many English speakers.

So, each Conversation Club meeting will be online with a video call and then each session of the Conversation Club will be tied to a specific Culips episode. So, you'll have to listen to the episode first as a kind of prerequisite and then secondly, you'll be able to talk, debate, or ask questions about that episode with other members of the Conversation Club.

And then along the way, the teacher will be there to be able to give you some helpful feedback about vocabulary, and grammar, and pronunciation and so on and so on. So, that's the idea for now. And of course, it's a work in progress.

So, things will change and develop as we continue with this project. Right now, we're just working on building our website to be able to handle this, and I don't think that will take us too long to do, and we are hoping that we'll be able to launch a test or beta version of this service sometime in April or May at the latest. And of course, we will make sure to update you as things develop.

And one more quick announcement here, we also released a brand-new Chatterbox episode last week about the topic of micro-living. And in that episode, I talked with my co-host Anna, and we answered the question, "Could you live in a micro-apartment?" I really enjoyed the conversation that Anna and I had, and we had a fantastic time chatting about the trend of living in small spaces.

So, if you haven't had the chance to check that episode out, I highly recommend it. And of course, there's a helpful study guide and an interactive transcript available for that episode as well for all Culips members.

And now it's time for this week's vocabulary lesson.

A little earlier in the episode, I used the expression "to play favorites" when I was talking about how, at least in my opinion, the public transit system in Seoul is one of, if not the best, in the world. Now that expression will be the focus for this episode's vocabulary lesson. To play favorites means to give preferential treatment to a person, or a group, or a thing over other people, or groups, or things.

For context, how about we go back and rewind and listen to the part of the episode where I used that expression and then we'll talk about what it means and how to use it and I'll break it down and give you more details about it. So, let's rewind now. Here we go.

Now let's talk about what to play favorites means. And as I mentioned, if you play favorites, well that means that you treat one thing or one person or one group better than others. So, imagine you have a teacher who always gives the best grades to a particular student. Even if that student's work is not as good as the other students in the class. Well in that situation, we could say that the teacher is playing favorites because the teacher shows an unfair bias towards that one particular student.

Another example might be a sports coach. So, imagine the coach always puts the same players on the field, even if they're not the best players on the team. In that situation, the coach is playing favorites, by again, showing a biased preference towards those players. So, in summary then, to be playing favorites just means to show favoritism towards a particular group, or a particular person, or a particular thing.

And when I used the expression in this episode when I was talking about the Seoul transit system, well, I used it because I live in Seoul. And maybe because I live here, you might think that I'm biased. And that's why I'm saying that it's better than other transit systems. Which, hey, that could be true. I'm not sure, but I think objectively the transit system here is actually very, very good. Anyways, let's move on to some example sentences.

And I've got three here prepared for you that I hope will help you to understand how we can use "to play favorites" in a natural way. So, let's take a listen to the first example right now. Here we go.

Let's break this example sentence down. In that example sentence, we hear about a bad manager. Why is that manager a bad manager? Well, it's because he's playing favorites and only promoting his friends. OK? He's not being fair and objective and promoting employees based on their work ethic or their achievements, OK? Instead of that, he is just promoting his friends, which I think everybody could agree is bad and unfair.

Let's break this example sentence down. In this example sentence, we hear about an influencer, maybe a YouTuber or an Instagrammer or a TikToker. Someone who uses social media to promote themselves and to promote products, right? And I guess everybody knows that usually these are just product placements and that when you see an influencer promoting a product, it's usually because that they are paid to do so.

But in that example, it seems like the influencer maybe wasn't honest or upfront about that. And so, because of that, she was accused of playing favorites and only promoting a brand that paid her to promote that product. So, she wasn't giving like her honest, genuine opinion about a product. Instead, she was just promoting a product because she got money from that company. In other words, she was playing favorites with that product.

In this example sentence, the speaker is complaining about a newspaper reporter, and he criticizes the reporter by saying that he only plays favorites and writes stories that support his political views. So, instead of taking an unbiased view about a range of topics from a range of different viewpoints, this reporter usually just writes about his political bias and from that perspective.

And I think this is a criticism that you'll hear used about the media often these days. Certain newspapers play favorites, or certain broadcasters play favorites, or certain reporters play favorites. So, keep your ears open for this expression and you might just hear it used in that kind of context.

That brings us to the end of this week's bonus episode. Thank you for listening all the way to the end and congratulations on completing an English study session here with me today.

If you're looking for more material to learn with this week, don't worry, we've got you covered, we have hundreds of more episodes available on our website, Culips.com, and of course, they're always free to listen and learn with and we have helpful study guides and transcripts that go with them as well for all Culips members.

So, I'm gonna go, but I hope you have an awesome week, take care, and I'll talk with you soon. Bye!