Andrew: Hello, and welcome to bonus episode number 63 of the Culips English Podcast. How's it going? I hope you're doing great. Thank you for clicking play and joining me today for this English study session. So, for those of you who don't know me, my name is Andrew.

I'm a Canadian, and I currently live in Seoul, South Korea. And in the bonus episode series, I share some stories with you from my life.

And I hope that by listening to these stories, you'll be able to improve your English fluency and grow your English vocabulary and your knowledge of the culture of English-speaking people as well.

To start this episode, I wanted to give a shout out to my folks, to my parents, because they had an important milestone in their lives. Over the past weekend, on Saturday, my parents celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary. Four-zero, 40 years. So that's a pretty incredible achievement.

So, I wanted to give a big congratulations to my parents right here at the start of the episode. And also on Sunday, it was my mother's birthday. So, a very big, important weekend for my parents.

And one thing that is unfortunate about living abroad, is that you often have to miss these kinds of important family events. It would have been great if I could have joined my parents and my brother and sister to have a celebration for my parents’ anniversary and my mom's birthday.

But it's just a little bit too far to fly from Seoul to Canada for a weekend trip. So unfortunately, I wasn't able to go back and hang out with them for these two celebrations. And to an extent, I feel a little bit guilty about missing out on some of these important family celebrations.

But I was able to phone my parents and my wife and I, we talked for a long time with my folks on FaceTime. So that was nice, but it does feel a little bit sad to have to miss out on these kinds of family events.

But I'm hoping that maybe next summer, I'll go back to my hometown, and we'll celebrate my parents 41st wedding anniversary together then.

Another announcement that I wanted to make is that there is a free transcript that accompanies this episode, you can get it by visiting our website Culips.com, or by clicking the link in the description for this episode. And I hope you'll find the transcript to be useful for your English studies.

It's free for everyone to access and use. So please check it out because I think it's a great study tool. So, the plan for this episode is that I'm just going to chat about what I've been up to over the last week.

And to be honest, I was a little bit stressed out when I was brainstorming and thinking about what I could tell you guys in this episode, because nothing really great came to mind. Of course, I always want to share exciting stories or interesting stories with you.

But I think everybody can relate to this, that sometimes life is just kind of boring and mundane. And we do the same things day in and day out and day in and day out. And that was kind of my week last week. I didn't do really anything special or exciting.

And so, I was stressed that I don't have, you know, really fascinating stories to share with you this week. But nonetheless, I'm going to share with you what I got up to over the last week.

And my hope is that even if you don't find them really exciting, or funny, or interesting, that you'll at least find them educational. And I'm hoping that this is the case, I'm not sure but I'm hoping, that it's one of those situations where things are always more exciting and interesting from the outside.

So, because it's my life and I'm just going through my day-to-day routine as normal, it seems a little boring for me. But maybe from an outsider's perspective, for you, it might seem a little bit more exciting. So I'm not sure, that's what I'm hoping. We'll see how it goes.

And of course, you can let me know what you think after you finish studying with this episode. So that's the plan for today, guys, and why don't we get started right now. Here we go.

If you asked me to summarize last week, I could do it in one very short three-letter word. The word is "hot." This last week has been hot, hot, hot in Korea. We're in the middle of a heat wave. And the temperature has been in the mid 30s — 33, 34, 35 degrees Celsius all week long.

And not only that, it's also very humid. And here in Seoul, it's also been extremely sunny. It's actually been very nice weather to look at from the inside of my home where I have a nice air conditioner blowing.

If I look out the window, I can see a beautiful blue sky and the sun in the sky, and it just looks like amazing weather. But then as soon as you step outside the front door, then you're just hit with this wave of heat and humidity. And you're like, "I gotta run back inside, I gotta get out of the heat."

So, it's just been a super-hot week, this last week. And I think hopefully, we're through most of the heat wave. And they will cool down a little bit for this week. But I'm not really sure about that. That's what my weather app says at least.

But as you probably know, weather apps and forecasts tend to be wrong from time to time, or often, most of the time. So, we'll just have to see how that goes. But yeah, to sum up last week, in one word, it was hot.

And so, because of that, it was really uncomfortable to go outside and do things. And in fact, my wife and I ended up canceling our Saturday plans because of the heat. Originally, we were going to go furniture shopping. So as many of you know, my wife and I recently moved into our new house.

And we're still putting some of the finishing touches on the house, we haven't completely furnished it yet. So, we still don't have desks, my wife and I are both working from the kitchen table in our living room. That is our current work setup. We haven't bought a sofa yet.

And we also don't have a kitchen table. Actually, we have a Korean-style kitchen table that we use, which we might continue using because it is very convenient. Let me just quickly tell you about what I mean here: a Korean-style kitchen table. So simply put, it's just a table that unfolds and goes on the floor.

And instead of sitting on a chair to use the table, you sit on the floor to use the table. It's only a little bit off the ground, it has very short legs, maybe about 25 to 30 centimeters long, and you just unfold the table, put it on the floor, and then you sit on the floor to use the table.

Now maybe for listeners who live outside of Asia, this could seem a little bit strange. I know as a Canadian the first time that I came to Korea, it seemed a little bit strange to me. But I quickly adjusted to the floor culture that is common here in South Korea.

So compared to Canada, at least, I think that the floor culture is very strong in Korea. It's common for people to sit on the floor, to sleep on the floor sometimes, even I know some people don't have a bed and instead they just sleep on the floor.

And even sometimes at a restaurant, you'll go to a restaurant and there won't be tables and chairs. But instead, you'll sit on the floor and you'll use one of these tables that just sits on the floor as well. Unfortunately, I think this culture is slowly disappearing in Korea.

I know when I first moved here, around a decade ago, it was really, really common to go to a restaurant and there would be half of the seating that was floor seating and half of the seating that was standard western-style chairs and tables. However, now I would say it's almost like 95%, tables and chairs.

And then sometimes when you go to an older style restaurant, you can still sit on the floor, but it's not that common at all. Sitting on the floor does take some adjustment time if you're not used to it. It took me a little while to adjust and I found it quite uncomfortable at first.

But now it's like second nature to me and I actually enjoy sitting on the floor. And sometimes even if we go to a restaurant where there's the option of floor seating, or table seating, then I'll choose to sit on the floor.

And I think one of the reasons why I like to do that is because I fear that this floor culture will disappear. Like I said 10 years ago, it was like 50:50 in the restaurants and now it's like 95:5 in favor of table and chairs. So, I have seen this culture disappear over the last decade.

And it's a little bit sad when you can see a tradition, or a culture slowly disappear right in front of your eyes. So, in case it disappears completely in the future, then I try to take advantage of it in the present. Anyways, where was I going with this?

Well, as I mentioned, my wife and I, we have this Korean-style dining table in our house. And it's kind of cool because at dinnertime or lunchtime or any mealtime really, we just take the table out of our cupboard, unfold it, set it up on the floor, you know set the table, sit down on the floor, and eat.

And then when we're finished, we just pack it back up, put it back in the cupboard. And then we have this extra floor space, right? There's not like this permanent table, taking up a big area of our dining room area.

So, in that regard, it's really awesome, in my opinion, because you get this extra floor space in your house. That being said, it can be a little bit uncomfortable when you have guests over.

And especially when I have my non-Korean friends come over who aren't used to sitting on the floor, this kind of situation, it would be nice to have a table and chairs for them. And so, we're debating, should we buy a dining room set? Should we get a table and chair and just set it up?

I'm not sure what we'll do. But that's one decision that we still need to make before our house feels totally complete. So yes, we need desks, we maybe need a kitchen table, and some other little pieces of furniture as well. So, our original plan was that we were going to get all of this done on Saturday.

But as I said, it has been hot, hot, hot. So, when Saturday rolled around, and we were thinking about going out, we decided, no, let's not go out. It was super-hot, super sunny, and we went outside into our front yard in the morning. And we were just like, "I don't think we can do this."

Because the area that we wanted to go to to check out some furniture stores isn't that far away, it's only like a 35-minute subway ride or so. But then once we would get to that neighborhood, we'd have to walk maybe 10 or 15 minutes to go to the furniture store.

Which again, is not that far, but in the extreme heat like that it just seemed really unpleasant, especially when we have the nice cool air conditioner in our home. So, at first, we decided to just delay the furniture shopping until the evening when the sun went down, and it cooled down a little bit.

But then in the end, we just pushed it back and pushed it back and decided just to cancel that plan and stay home. And I hope we'll do it sometime soon. But at the same time, there's no real rush and we're living in the house fine.

There's no big problems, although it's a little bit uncomfortable for us to be both working at our kitchen table. And now that I've just said that I realized that you're probably maybe a little bit confused, because I said that we're debating buying a kitchen table.

But at the same time, we're using a kitchen table for our desks and workspace. Well, let me clear up that confusion really quickly. The kitchen table that we're using as our current "computer desk zone area workspace", is just the kitchen table from our last apartment.

And the size and the shape of the table isn't a good fit for our current house. So, we're kind of using that kitchen table as a temporary desk area. And in the future after we buy desks, then we're going to probably sell that kitchen table because it's not really a good shape and fit for the current house.

So please don't be confused about that. Although we do have a kitchen table at the moment, it's not being used as a kitchen table, it's being used as a desk.

And then on Sunday, my wife and I also had a plan to go out and watch a movie. One of my favorite movie directors of all time is a guy named Wes Anderson. And probably you've heard of him. He's a very famous American movie director. And I just love his movies.

They are extremely unique in the way that they look. And also, the stories that they tell.

Although to be honest, there are many copycat directors these days, which is unfortunate because when you have a really original director, an original storyteller, like Wes Anderson, and then other people copy his style, then it makes his style seem less original, right? Because there's more of it.

Anyways, if you're unfamiliar with Wes Anderson, I highly recommend that you check out some of his movies. My two personal favorites are The Royal Tenenbaums, and Life Aquatic but I think really there's value to all of his movies. They're all really good.

Amazing visually, the sets, the costumes, the acting, the soundtrack, and especially the scripts. The writing is really original and funny. And I just love his movies. I've been a big fan ever since I was a high school student. Wes Anderson has a brand-new movie out. It's called Asteroid City.

And it is a star-packed movie. Really some of the best of the best, the A-list from Hollywood are in this movie. And as a huge Wes Anderson fan, I definitely want to see this movie.

So, on Saturday night after we canceled our furniture, shopping plans for good, my wife and I decided, "OK, let's go see this Wes Anderson movie, Asteroid City." You know, movie theaters are a place that you can go to beat the heat, right? They have air conditioning, and they're comfortable.

Even in the summer. It's like a cool, cold place. So, we booked tickets online to go see Astroid City on Sunday. But then when Sunday rolled around, it was also very hot, and at the same time, rainy. And my wife and I kind of did this thing where we're like, should we go? Should we not go? Should we go?

And in the end, we decided to not go. I guess it's just one of those weekends, where we're kind of lazy and we're using the weather as an excuse to not do something, right? Maybe in the end, we just kind of want to stay at home. I don't know, maybe we were tired or something. So, we canceled the tickets.

It's really nice here in Korea, and this is something that I think is different between Korea and Canada, and I'm curious about what it's like in your home country as well, but when you want to go see a movie here in Korea, you can just book using an app or a website, you go to the theater website, and you log in and choose the movie and the time and the place, you know all of the basics.

But you can also choose your seat, which I think is pretty cool. And interestingly enough, the seats change prices ever so slightly, depending on where you sit. So, there are cheap seats and expensive seats in the movie theater. And yeah, you can choose where you want to sit and reserve your seat.

And it's very, very convenient. And another thing that's cool is that if you do want to cancel, you can cancel without any cancellation fee or paying any extra, you know, cancellation charge or something like that, up until I believe 30 minutes before the movie starts.

So, if it's too close to the start of the movie, then it's too late and you won't be able to get a refund, or you have to pay a cancellation fee. But as long as it's 30 minutes or an hour, I think the policy varies from theater to theater to theater, but as long as you cancel with enough time, well, then you can get a full refund.

So, we decided around three hours before the movie was supposed to start that we weren't going to make it. So, my wife just went on her movie app and canceled the tickets, and we were able to get a full refund. So that's very, very convenient. I'm sure in Canada, they probably have a similar service now.

But at least when I last lived in Canada, this kind of thing wasn't available. So, if you wanted to go see a movie, especially a popular movie that would sell out, if you wanted to ensure that you had a ticket, you would have to stop by the movie theater in advance and buy your physical ticket.

And then once you bought your ticket, that was it, you had your ticket, and you wouldn't be able to get a refund. And also, I remember not having an assigned seat. So, if you wanted to sit in a good section of the theater, you would have to get there early, it was first come first served.

Anyways, that was my weekend. It was a weekend where we had big plans and things that we wanted to do. But in the end, because of the weather, or at least using the weather as an excuse, we ended up just canceling our plans. And instead, we just stayed at home and took advantage of the world's greatest invention, the air conditioner.

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

So, before I let you go, I want to teach you about an interesting English word. The word is copycat. Copy, C-O-P-Y. Cat, C-A-T.

And it's just one word copycat. And I used it in this episode when I was talking about Wes Anderson and his new movie, Asteroid City. In fact, I was complaining about movie directors who have copied Wes Anderson's style.

And because his style has been copied, it makes it feel a little bit less original, because there's just more of those kinds of stories and films that look that way in the world.

So, I'm gonna break down this vocabulary and tell you how English speakers use it and what kind of situations you can use it in your own English speaking as well.

But before we do that, I just want to rewind the tape and go back to the part of the story where I shared my copycat sentence just so we can hear it used in context a couple more times. So, let's rewind, go back, and take another listen.

Now let's talk about what copycat means. So, we can use this word as a noun, we can say that someone or something is a copycat. So, if you are a copycat, that means that you replicate or imitate something else, so that you're not original. You're just a copy.

And I can remember hearing kids at elementary school use this word as a way to tease other kids.

So, for example, if one student had a brand-new pair of shoes, for example, and they were really cool and stylish shoes, and then other kids also wanted those shoes, so maybe they went home to their parents and they said, "Mom, please buy me these shoes." And then they got those shoes and wore them to school.

Then the kid who originally had the shoes, the kind of trendsetter he would say, "Hey, you're a copycat. Copycat! Copycat!" Right? You're like you're copying my style. You're unoriginal, you are just following my lead.

So, when we use it as a noun, and we say somebody is a copycat, it just means that they're unoriginal and are just imitating someone else or borrowing from someone else. And they're not using their own creativity to be original.

Now, in the context of the episode, I actually used this word as an adjective, right? I said copycat directors. So, I was talking about movie directors who are super heavily influenced by Wes Anderson's style.

So, they are so influenced by his creativity, that they end up copying Wes Anderson, and their movies seem almost exactly like his. So, we can use this as an adjective to describe people, right? People like movie directors who copy or imitate the style of other directors.

But we can also use it to describe things as well. For example, maybe you've heard of a copycat crime before. And unfortunately, this is something that we often see, it's when one crime happens, and maybe it's a very sensational crime.

Well, then in the following days or weeks, we see a similar crime happen. So that's a kind of unfortunate example. But that's one way that English speakers use this vocabulary is to describe crimes that appear very, very similar in nature to other crimes, especially shocking, or sensational crimes.

A lot of mass shootings in America come to mind when I think of a copycat crime. One kind of shooting will happen, and then unfortunately, a few weeks later, a very similar style shooting will occur. And it sucks that that is a thing, but it is a thing, copycat crimes.

You may be wondering why we call somebody who imitates or steals somebody else's style, a copycat. And I tried to Google around and find an answer because I was curious as well. I don't know why we refer to somebody like this as a cat, a copycat. And I couldn't find a great answer.

But some people online suggest that it might be because kittens learn how to become a cat by following and imitating the other kittens in the litter and also their parents. So, they'll see their mom do some kind of action, and then they'll copy their mom's behavior.

And that's how they learn and become successful adult cats, right? That can hunt and hide and do all of the cat things that they need to do to be cats.

So maybe that is one reason why we call somebody a copycat is because long ago, back in the day, some cat lover was watching their kittens, and they saw the kittens imitate their mother or imitate some of the other kittens in the litter. And they said "copycat", and then the term just took off from there.

So, I'm not sure exactly if that is the real origin story or not, we might never know the true origin. But if that helps you remember the expression to some extent, well, then I think it's OK to think of a copycat originating from that kind of situation.

So, now that we know the meaning, I want to take a listen to some example sentences. I've prepared three for us to learn with. So, let's get right to them. And we'll check out the first example now. Here we go.

Let's break this sentence down. So, in this sentence, the speaker says that there are so many copycats on social media. And I think if you're a user of Instagram or TikTok, or YouTube, you will completely know what this sentence is talking about.

Because these days, many creators just try and copy the most popular creators. And they hope that by imitating their style, then they can also become popular.

So maybe this is a negative thing about social media is that instead of trying to be original, and innovative, instead of that kind of approach to making content, many video makers just sort of copy the top dogs and the biggest channels, and hope that by imitating that style, then they can also become successful.

Mr. Beast comes to mind. I'm sure many of you know who Mr. Beast is. I think he's the most popular YouTuber in the world and he has inspired many, many, many copycats. Many, many other channels, and creators who just kind of replicate his style of videos hoping that they can also become the next Mr. Beast.

Let's break this example sentence down. In this example sentence the speaker is talking about his friend and his friend is an artist, and probably a very good artist, but his friend's art is not original. At first, he thought it was original. But then later, he learned that his friend was just imitating some other artists.

So, he called his friend's art a copycat version of somebody else's artwork. So, his friend is a good artist, but unfortunately, not an original artist. The friend is just a copycat.

Let's break this final example sentence down. In this example sentence, we could hear the speaker complaining about a guy in his office who is a copycat. So maybe you've had this situation in your life before even, I'm not sure, I guess it depends on the kind of work you do.

But the speaker in the example sentence comes up with great original ideas. And then one of his coworkers just copies the ideas, and then presents them to the boss as his own. It must be a very frustrating experience to have a copycat coworker who just steals your ideas and then presents them to the boss as his own. It must be extremely frustrating.

That brings us to the end of this bonus episode, everyone. Thank you for tuning in and studying along with me today. And if you made it all the way to the end here, give yourself a pat on the back. Congratulations on completing this English study session with me, I think you did a great job.

And remember that this is what you need to do to achieve English fluency. You need to put in the time, you need to put in the work and the effort. And you did that today, so I'm proud of you. And I want you to keep it up. Let's have a productive week of English study this week.

If you need more content or more things to help you with that, of course, you've come to the right place because we have hundreds of lessons on our website, Culips.com.

And if you sign up and become a Culips member, you will also get the helpful study guides, full transcripts, quizzes, and more for all of those episodes.

Also, we have a Discord server that you can join to connect with our community of passionate English learners from around the world. It's a fantastic place where you can practice your English speaking, listening, reading, writing, and make some new friends all at the same time.

It's free to join and we'll put the link in the description for this episode.

Anyways, I'm going to take off. Take care, have a great week, happy English studies, and I'll talk to you soon, bye!