They did a security update on their end, and as a result, a lot of the functionality on our website was broken. And it made it really, really difficult to access our website, and to load our Culips episodes. And maybe even you yourself experienced this issue.

So, I’m really, really sorry about that everyone, it was difficult to access Culips for about a week. And because of that, we decided to not upload a bonus episode last week, either. So, this is the first time since launching the bonus episode series that I skipped a week, but I skipped last week.

And that’s just because I didn’t want to frustrate you, you know, you would have been able to see that there was a brand-new bonus episode uploaded, but you wouldn’t have been able to listen to it. So anyway, without going into too many of the technical details, I have good news to report.

And that is that we have switched our server we’re using a much more reliable, a much more trusted, and most importantly, a much faster server now. So going forward in the future, you shouldn’t have any problems at all, listening to Culips.

And in fact, the opposite is true, you should actually have a much more pleasant, much more enjoyable time studying with our content, because this new server is much faster.

And you’ll notice that the audio actually loads really quickly now as well, which makes studying with our interactive transcripts way better than it was before. So, I’m really happy about that.

And speaking of interactive transcripts, well we give one away for free for every bonus episode, and this is bonus episode number 68. So, there is definitely a free transcript that will accompany this episode. And you can get it just by following the link that’s in the description.

Or if you’d prefer to study with an old-school PDF, well, then we have that available for you as well. And again, just follow the link in the description and you’ll be able to get the PDF version of the transcript.

So, there’s been a lot of things that have gone on in my life over the last two weeks, since I talked to you last. There’s been some amazing things, and also some terrible things. And over the next few weeks, I plan on telling you all of these stories.

But in today’s episode, I’m going to tell you a story about a road trip I took recently to a city called Gwangju, where I hung out with some of my good friends, and we participated in a half marathon together.

So that’s the story for this week, everyone, but please make sure that you stay tuned for upcoming weeks as well, because I do have a lot of great stories to share with you about some interesting, some fantastic, and some terrible things that have happened to me in my life over the last little while.

Now, if you enjoy studying with Culips, please don’t forget to support us. You can do that in so many different ways. You can tell your friends who are learning English to check Culips out, you could follow us on Instagram or join our Discord server.

But the best way to support us is by signing up and becoming a Culips member. When you’re a Culips member, you’ll get so many great things. You’ll get access to all of the learning materials that we make to help you take your English to the next level.

Those things include full transcripts and study guides for all of our episodes, plus much more. If you’re interested in that and you want to find out more details and sign up and become a member, then please just follow the link that’s in the description for this episode.

So, I think that’s all I wanted to tell you here at the top of the show. So, let’s get into it. Here’s my story about visiting my friends down south and running in a half marathon. Enjoy!

So, the story that I’m going to tell you this week is about a road trip that I took to the southern part of the country last weekend.

So, I currently live in Seoul, South Korea, and last weekend I visited a couple of friends who live in Gwangju, South Korea, and Gwangju may be a city that many of our listeners from outside of Korea have never heard about before.

But it’s a medium sized city, there’s probably about just over a million people who live there. And it takes about two hours to get from Seoul to Gwangju if you take the bullet train, and that’s exactly what I did. I have to say I love taking the bullet train. It’s always a really pleasurable experience.

I don’t know, it’s just so much more convenient than having to take an airplane or a slower train. I love that you can just show up to the station, and then walk right onto your train. And then exactly at the time that it says on the ticket that the train will depart, the train departs.

So, in my opinion, definitely the high-speed bullet train is the best way to travel in Korea. And that’s how I visited Gwangju last weekend. Now, I was actually only in Gwangju for just 24 hours. I think it was about 23 hours and 40 minutes that I was in Gwangju. So, just under a full day.

And I went down there for a couple of reasons. First, to see a couple of my friends, I have two close friends who are living there, and one is Canadian, one is American. And one of the things that we enjoy doing together is running. This is like our shared hobby between the three of us. We all enjoy running.

And the reason that we got together is so that we could participate in a race together in a smaller city, a little bit outside of Gwangju, I guess you could almost call it a suburb of Gwangju. It’s a little city called Naju. And Naju is just this lovely little place outside of Gwangju.

And it’s much different feeling, it’s more countryside, so you have a lot more greenery, there are lots of farms and rice paddies, and also some beautiful mountains and streams. So, it’s just a really lovely place. And that’s where the race was happening.

So, to backtrack a little bit and just remind you of something that I talked about a few months ago, in a bonus episode, I’m currently training to run a marathon that will be happening at the end of October, and I’m going to be running that marathon with one of my friends.

His name is Jimmy, and he’s the American friend who I just mentioned a second ago. So as part of our training, Jimmy, and I thought, like, hey, it would be a good idea if we did a practice run before the full marathon. The full marathon is 42 and a half kilometers.

Before we do that full marathon, maybe we should do a half marathon, like an official race, just as a way to train together and to get ready for the upcoming race. So, I said, yeah, that sounds like a great idea.

And in fact, if you look at many marathon training plans, they’ll often tell you that sometime in the middle of your training, you should do exactly this, you should sign up for a half marathon and get out there and race with some other people, just to kind of prepare yourself for the bigger event that’s coming up in the future.

So yeah, we decided to do that we decided to run this half marathon together. And I kind of left it in Jimmy’s hands. He said he would take the lead in finding a good half marathon for us to run. And so, I said, “Sure, no problem. You take the lead and just tell me what it is and where it is.

And I’ll be there.” So, he selected this half marathon in Naju because it was very close to a neighborhood where he used to live when he first moved to Korea. I guess he lived in that neighborhood in Naju. So, he was familiar with the area. He said it was beautiful.

The scenery is great. “You’re gonna love it. Andrew, you know, it’s a big change from Seoul. So come out of the city, come down and see us in the south. And we’ll run this half marathon together.” So yeah, I was down. And so that’s what I did last weekend. The race was on Sunday morning.

So, I left Seoul on Saturday afternoon, and I arrived in Gwangju at about 5pm on Saturday afternoon. It’s only a little trip down there. And the train ride, like I said, very smooth, very sweet. I think I slept the whole way pretty much.

I don’t know about you, whenever I’m riding a train or on an airplane, or even a longer bus trip, I tend to fall asleep. This is one way that I like to pass the time. I know some people can read books or watch movies. But I’m more of a sleeper slash podcast listener. If I’m not sleeping, I’m listening to podcasts.

And if I’m not listening to a podcast, then I’m probably sleeping. This is how I tend to pass my time on these trips. But I always worry that I might start snoring. So, it’s always in the back of my mind like don’t snore, don’t snore too loudly.

And I think we’ve all probably had that experience where you’re riding on a train or on a bus or a plane and somebody beside you or near you is just snoring their head off, right? It’s always a little bit annoying. So, I try not to be this person. But to be honest, I was quite tired on Saturday.

So, when I get really tired and I fall into a deep sleep, I’m always worried that I might start snoring. But I think it was OK. I don’t think I snore too much on the train. Hopefully, at least!

You know, when I’m traveling solo and I don’t have my wife with me there’s really no way to know, but I don’t think I was snoring loudly on that trip. Anyways, so I arrived in Gwangju, and I met up with Jimmy. He was kind enough to come to the train station and pick me up. And then we headed to his house.

He was also kind enough to host me for the weekend. So, I stayed with him and his wife, his lovely wife, who I met for the first time, actually, he just got married recently. But I hadn’t had the opportunity to meet his wife yet. So, I met his wife, and I also met his dog for the first time. He has this really lovely dog.

But yeah, it was awesome to stay with Jimmy and his wife. And so, after I arrived at his house and settled in a little bit, we decided to do a shakeout run together. And a shakeout run is just a very light, gentle run that runners usually do either before a race or maybe the day after a race.

And the purpose of a shakeout run is just to shake out your muscles and make sure that your body is loose, and limber, and in the best shape possible. And I’ve been doing a lot of marathon training alone these days.

You know, I am training with Jimmy, we’re working on running the same marathon together, but he’s in Gwangju and I’m here in Seoul. And so, we do text a lot back and forth about how our progress is going, and the highs and lows of marathon training. But at the same time, we are very much running alone.

So, I think both of us kind of feel like it’s a little bit lonely. And of course, there are running clubs and different groups that we could join. But we both have very busy schedules. And it’s just easier for both of us if we kind of get our running in alone. It’s the easiest way to do it.

So, it was very nice then, on the other hand, to be able to meet up and run together and I really enjoyed that shakeout run, we just ran slow, and we were able to chat. And I noticed that when you do run with somebody else, it’s much easier, the kilometers just seem to fly by.

And we just had a nice time catching up and chatting and getting a few kilometers in so that we could warm up for the race tomorrow. After the run, we met up with our other friend who is going to be joining us for the half marathon and Jimmy’s wife, and we ate a nice dinner together.

But we didn’t want to stay out too late because we would have to wake up early the next morning for this half marathon. Now I should explain about this running event because I think it deserves some explanation. So, as I told you, Jimmy was the one who found the race and suggested this race.

And he did do a fantastic job. He picked an amazing event. Overall, I had a really amazing time and was really impressed with this half marathon. But one thing was kind of a curveball. And a curveball means something that is unexpected.

So, when I was thinking that we would be doing the half marathon, I just sort of imagined that it would be a road race that we would be running on the road. Now Korea is a country that’s composed of 70% mountains, it’s a really mountainous country. And pretty much everywhere, there are ups and downs.

Now the one area of the country that does tend to be a little bit flatter is actually that Gwangju area. Now, that being said, I wasn’t expecting the race to be flat by any means. I don’t think there’s any place in Korea that’s completely flat. Whenever you go out for a run, you’re always going up hills and down hills.

But what I wasn’t really expecting for this race is just how much of uphill and downhill there would be. Because this wasn’t a road race in the traditional sense. It was a race through the mountains, OK? The race was called something like the “Naju Forest Road Race.”

And just like the name suggests, we raced on this road through the forest. And the forest ended up being more like a mountain forest. And it was much more up and down and around than I was originally expecting. So anyways, we got up early.

I think Jimmy and I were both up by 6:45 in the morning, we got prepared, and we went out to the race site to get ready a little bit early just to do some stretching, and some jogging, and to make sure that we are all geared up and ready to go for the race. And then our other friend came and met us there as well.

And so finally at around 9am, we were ready to go. Now this was a rather smaller race in the countryside. So, I think, you know, there weren’t too many participants, some of the larger races here in Seoul.

Like the famous Seoul Marathon, I think you can get thousands and thousands of people participating, maybe 30 or 40,000 runners at once. But here in Naju, out in the countryside, it was more like a few 100, maybe there were 300 or 400 participants total. But still, the atmosphere was great.

And the race actually started on a university campus. And we use the university track as kind of the start and finish line. Now for this event, there were there were three different categories of races.

There was a six-kilometer race, a 12-kilometer race, and a half-marathon race and a half marathon is around 21 point something kilometers. I’m not sure, it’s just a little bit over 21 kilometers, I can’t remember the exact decimal, but pretty much 21 kilometers.

And Jimmy and I participated in the 21-kilometer race, while our friend, he participated in the 12-kilometer race. And the half marathon group was the first group to depart. So exactly at 9am, they counted us down 3-2-1 go, and we were off! Now, Jimmy and I originally, we planned to run this race together.

In fact, in my mind, I was thinking that this would be perfect training for us to kind of gauge each other out, see where we’re at. Because for the full marathon coming up in October, we’re planning to run three hour and 30 minute marathon. And so we need to be able to run at that pace.

And I thought that doing this race would give us a good opportunity, kind of to see if we could keep up together at the speed that we need to maintain in order to achieve that goal later when we do the full marathon in October.

But the problem is that this race was so hilly, that we realized right away from the start, that it would be impossible for us to carry the pace that we need to go just because it was way too hilly to be able to go at that speed. So we started the race together.

But during the first big incline of the race, which was probably about two kilometers into it, Jimmy and I decided that instead of trying to keep up with our target pace, we should just go at our own pace instead. Because it was very, very obvious that we wouldn’t be able to keep our own pace up.

So we decided just to be comfortable, and just to run at our own speed. And at that moment, we kind of broke up, and we went into different running packs. Now this first climb of the race was really, really intense, it was very steep. And it seemed to go on forever and ever and ever. And it was just a nasty climb.

At that point, I kind of just put my head down and tried to keep moving as evenly and as steadily as possible without gaining speed, or losing any speed. And to be honest with you, it was all kind of a blur.

I was just focusing on not dying while running up the hill. And finally, after what seemed like hours and hours, I got to the top of the first climb. And then there was a little bit of relief with a downhill section. But then what seemed like after only just a brief moment, again, I was headed up hill.

And so again, I just put my head down and kept running. And I was going very slowly, but I wasn’t giving up. And I was just sort of getting up the hill as fast as I could, again, without dying or without burning out and having to stop and walk.

So for this race, I had no intention of really racing it, it wasn’t a goal of mine to try and be the fastest or to win the race or anything like that. And to be honest with you, even if that was my goal, I don’t think I would be able to do it because I am definitely not the fastest runner in the world, or even the fastest runner in Naju by any means.

But I noticed that I kept passing people as I was running up the mountain. People had to stop and walk or take a break. And luckily for me, I didn’t have to do that. So ,I could just slowly go up and go up and go up.

Well, the road continued and you know, it was up and down and around through this beautiful mountain road. Thankfully, it was a mostly paved road. There were some sections that were off road. So what I mean by off road is more like a dirt trail with rocks.

But for the most part, the road was paved, and it was very wide. And I also forgot to apply sunscreen. And I was really kicking myself after I realized that I had forgotten to apply my sunscreen because my skin burns really easily.

And I did actually bring a big bottle of sunscreen with me but I was just too focused on getting ready for the race mentally that I forgot to get ready for the race physically and actually apply the sunscreen.

But thankfully there was a lot of shade and cover from the trees in this forest road, that I wasn’t even getting hit by the sun, too directly. So that was also wonderful. And yeah, the scenery was just great.

It was a beautiful, sunny day with a blue sky and the sun was shining through the leaves of the trees in the morning, there were a couple of lakes and streams. So, it was just idyllic. And it was a great escape from the city life that I usually experience. So, I was trying to enjoy the scenery as much as I could.

But at the same time, you know, I was so tired from running up the mountain that most of the time my eyes just looked at my feet, and like the step in front of me, and unfortunately, I don’t think I took advantage of seeing as much of the scenery as I could have. But yeah, I felt like the race was going okay.

And suddenly, I found myself all alone, there were no runners that I could see in front of me. And there were no runners that I could see behind me. So I was just all alone in the forest, running by myself. And it was quite nice. Usually I listen to music while I run.

But for this event, I was planning on chatting with Jimmy for most of it. And even though that didn’t quite work out as planned, it was really nice just to have no music and to listen to the birds sing. And just to hear my feet stomp 1-2-1-2 on the road in front of me as I went along.

So, the way that the course was set up is that we would run for about 10 and a half-ish kilometers. And then you turn around and just run back to the start line agai and that is where the finish line is. The start line and the finish line, were in the exact same location.

So, what’s cool about this is that once you get close to the turnaround point, you can actually tell what your place is in the race because you just have to count all of the people who pass you on their way back to go to the end of the race, right?

So, as I started getting closer to the turnaround point, I was trying to think, “Huh, I wonder what position I am in this race?” I really had no idea. I started the race rather comfortably when I was running with Jimmy.

But once we decided to split up, I felt like maybe I picked up the pace and got into position closer to the leaders of the race. In my mind, I was estimating that I was probably around 20th, somewhere between 20th and 30th place. And I think overall, there were about 155 runners.

So I thought I feel like I’m close to the leaders of the race, but not quite where they are. And so I had in mind that as soon as we hit the turnaround point, I would start counting and I wouldn’t be able to see by the people who passed me what position I was in the race.

And eventually that happened as I was nearing the turnaround point, I got passed by three runners. So there were three runners at the head of the pack. And they were all running together. And I estimated that they were probably a good kilometer ahead of me. So they were way, way, way ahead.

Maybe even farther than that I’m not so sure. Again, my goal wasn’t to win this race. So I just kind of cheered them on as they passed. And it was fun to see them really giving it their all and battle it out like that in front of the race. And then a couple of other runners pass me as well.

Fourth place went by, fifth place went by, sixth place went by, seventh place went by, but then it was my turn to turn around and head back. And so I noticed “Well, I guess I’m in eighth place.” So I felt, well, that’s pretty good eighth place. I didn’t even have any expectations for this race.

But I was already in eighth. However, I guess I had been slowing down a little bit because I could hear some footsteps behind me. And when I turned to look behind me, there were a group of three runners that were only about, I don’t know, 500 meters back or so. So it was kind of interesting spot that I was in.

I was like, “If I slow down too much, and I let these three runners from behind me pass me, then I’m gonna get bumped out of the top 10.” And of course, if that happened, I wouldn’t care. It’s not like I wanted a top 10 finish.

But at the same time, once I realized that I was possibly able to finish for a top 10 place, then maybe I should try and do that? Like it seemed like that would feel good to finish in the top 10 for this race. So, I had to make a decision.

Do I just like take it easy for the remaining 11 kilometers back to the finish line? Or should I try it and fight and maintain my top 10 position? Well, if you’ve been a longtime listener of Culips, then you’ll know that I’m a pretty competitive person.

And I thought I don’t want to get passed by those three people behind me. So I’m just going to try and finish in eighth place. I don’t need to be greedy and push too hard to try and pass some of the racers in front of me, but at the same time, I didn’t want to get passed by those runners behind me.

And I thought, I’m just going to try and keep this eighth place position that I have. So that was my game plan for the second half of the race.

And of course, also, now I felt a little bit more comfortable because I knew what to expect for the second half of the race, the first half of the race is just a complete mystery, I had never run it before, I didn’t have any information about the elevation or the kind of roads that I’d be running on.

So it was all a mystery. But for the second half, it wasn’t a mystery, it would be exactly the same road, just run in reverse. So I knew a little bit more about what to expect. So, that was my game plan for the second half of the race. And to make a long story short, I was able to maintain my position.

And in fact, I was even able to gain a couple of spots on the way back. I caught up with the seventh place runner, just shortly after we did the turnaround. And then we actually ended up running together for about five or six kilometers, and kind of pushing each other to go faster.

We talked to each other, we had a nice conversation while we were running. And he seemed to know the course much better than I did. So, he would tell me like this hill that’s coming up is a big one, get ready for it. Or we’re going to be going downhill for a little bit now, so you can get ready.

Or the water station is coming up soon, so you can get a break. He was really nice and giving me some tips about the race. And we encouraged each other and ran with each other almost until the whole end of the race.

Honestly, we were on the final climb of the race with about two kilometers to go when he started telling me that he was getting a cramp and his leg. And he said to me, “Uh, I feel like I’m getting a cramp.

I don’t know, I might have to stop running here for a bit. If I suddenly stopped running, then just keep going, OK? Don’t wait for me.” And of course, I had never met this guy before. But we kind of struck up a friendship there on the road as we were running because we were like the only two runners together at that point.

And I felt bad because eventually on the last decline, the last big downhill section of the race before the finish line at about, yeah, a kilometer and a half before the finish line, suddenly his leg cramped up, and he had to take a break. And so I kind of looked back and I said, “Oh, best of luck.”

But I didn’t stop to help him. He said he was OK, he just kind of waved me on. He said, “Go go go.” So, I ran down that final downhill and then crossed the finish line. And at the end of the race, I had finished in sixth place. Som it was an unexpected surprise to finish in the top 10.

And I was very proud of myself and happy that I was able to get a result that at least to me was pretty good. I still got beat by almost 15 minutes by the winner. So, it wasn’t like anywhere near top performance or anything like that.

But I felt like I had a good run, I ran well, and it was just fun to get out there and spend some time in the mountains and get to meet and run with some other runners as well. That was super fun. Now, as the sixth-place finisher, in the race, I did win a little prize as well, which was super exciting.

And I won 30,000 won in gift certificates for the market in Naju. Which was great because the entrance fee to the race was 30,000 won. Now 30,000 won is approximately about 25-ish American dollars.

So, I felt like wow, I was able to run this race for free because I paid 30,000 won to enter and then I got 30,000 won worth of gift certificates for the Naju market later on. So, I felt like it cancelled itself out and I was just able to enjoy the race without having to pay an entrance fee.

So, that was wonderful. Now once the race finished and Jimmy crossed the line and our other buddy as well crossed the finish line, then we were able to take part in some of the festivities that were happening on the university campus organized by the race crew.

They were giving out some Korean food. I had this wonderful bowl of ddeok guk, which is a kind of rice-cake soup. It was actually really, really good and it just hit the spot.

At first it kind of sounds a little weird to a Canadian person to eat this kind of hot, rice-cake soup after finishing a race, especially one that took place in the hot summer heat, but it hit the spot and it was a great recovery meal.

They were also giving out some rice wine. So I had a couple of glasses of rice wine. And it was just a nice way to end the race and also a good way to socialize with some of the other racers in the events as well.

So, after the race, Jimmy and I went back to Gwangju and I picked up my stuff from his apartment, we cleaned up, and we went out and ate some lunch, and then it was time for me to head back to Seoul. Som I took the cute little subway that’s in Gwangju.

And I say it’s cute because coming from Seoul, the subway is about double the width of the Gwangju subway. So, when you get inside the Gwangju subway, it feels small and cute compared to the wider Seoul version. So, I got on the Gwangju subway and I rode to the train station.

And then I took my bullet train back to Seoul. And I arrived at my house by about seven in the evening on Sunday night. So all in all, it was a wonderful weekend, it’s nice to get away outside of the city for a bit, it’s good to see my friends.

And also it was good training for this upcoming marathon that Jimmy and I will be running in October. We both feel like we still have a lot of work to do, but we feel pretty confident that we’ll be able to finish. We’re still a little bit on the fence about whether or not we’ll be able to make our target time. But we’ll try our best, and we’ll see what happens in October.

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

Before I let you go, I want to teach you about a fun and useful English idiomatic expression. It is head off, head off, head off.

And actually we have to use it with an action so you could talk your head off, or you could laugh your head off, you could sing your head off, or in the context of what we heard me say in this episode, I said snore your head off.

In fact, I used this expression when I was talking about riding the train down to Gwangju and I was saying how I like to sleep on the train.

But I was worried about snoring on the train because I had heard other people in the past snore really loudly on the train, and it gets to be a little bit annoying when that happens.

So, before I explain the meaning and how you can use this expression in your regular everyday English speaking, I want to go back and listen to the part where I use that expression will listen to it a couple of more times just for context, and then I’ll break it down, explain the meaning and even give you some example sentences using this expression.

So, let’s do that now. Let’s rewind, go back and take another listen. Here we go.

So in that clip, we heard me talking about how annoying it is when there’s a stranger on the bus or train or plane, who’s snoring their head off. And maybe you’re wondering why we use that pronoun ‘their’ instead of ‘his’ or ‘hers.’ Well, to be honest with you, most of the time when this happens, it is a guy.

I don’t want to be too stereotypical, but that’s usually what I notice. But we just use that pronoun “their” whenever we’re referring to somebody in general, regardless of their gender, or when we don’t exactly know even who it is.

Because sometimes you might hear some snoring, but you might not know who is actually doing the snoring, right? So in that kind of case, it’s best to use this pronoun “their.” So now let’s talk about the meaning of this expression.

If you snore your head off, it means you are snoring very loudly and very intensely. In fact, we use this expression to describe people who are doing something intensely.

If you’re laughing your head off, it means you’re laughing very intensely, you’re laughing really hard. If you’re singing your head off, then it means you’re singing really intensely ,singing really hard.

And it’s almost like you’ve lost control of yourself, OK? It’s almost like your head is disconnected from your body because you’re doing something with such passion and such intensity. I think that’s the imagery behind this expression.

So of course, this is a casual idiom, you wouldn’t really want to use it when you’re writing a formal academic essay, or in an important business meeting. But when you’re just speaking with your friends or colleagues, then it’s totally OK to use and it’s really, really common in everyday English.

And one more note about this expression is that you can change the pronoun based on the context of what you want to communicate. So we heard me earlier say “snore their head off”. I’ve also used “snore your head off” while explaining this expression.

And yeah, just change the pronoun there to match your situation. So, I could snore my head off, you could snore your head off, they could snore their heads off. The context will determine what pronoun you need to use.

So now it’s time for some example sentences to show you how native speakers would use this kind of expression in their day to day life. As always, I’ve got three prepared for you. So let’s take a listen to the first one now. Here we go.

Let’s break this example sentence down. In this example sentence we hear about someone who watched a comedy special and a comedy special is what we call a performance by a stand up comedian that you can watch on TV or Netflix or YouTube.

And the speaker of that example sentence said that the comedy special was so hilarious that he laughed his head off, which just means that he really found it funny. And he was laughing intensely and uncontrollably at the comedian.

There’s another expression that’s very similar to this one that we use for laughing especially. But it’s a little bit ruder than laugh your head off, it is “laugh your ass off.” And that’s a really funny expression. Again, it’s chill and cool to use with your friends. But that word “ass” is a little bit rude.

So you’re going to want to be careful with saying that. Just to cover your bases and make sure that you don’t offend anyone, I recommend instead just saying laugh your head off. OK, now let’s listen to example sentence number two.

Let’s break this example sentence down. You know, in a North American style wedding, after the wedding ceremony, there’s a reception. And the reception is a big party with food and drinks. And if it’s a good wedding, there will be dancing.

And that’s always the really fun part of the wedding reception is the dancing. Sometimes there’s a live band or a DJ, and all of the wedding guests gather and dance and it’s really fun. So in this example sentence, we hear about some wedding guests who danced their heads off all night.

And that just means that they danced like crazy, they danced very intensely, and they had a great time dancing.

Let’s break this final example sentence down. In this example sentence, we hear about some fans who really went crazy and cheered like nuts, when their team scored the winning goal, OK? They cheered their heads off.

And again, this just means that they were very intensely cheering for their team, because the team made them so happy by scoring that winning goal. So, that’s going to bring us to the end of this episode, everyone. Congratulations, you did it. You finished an English study session with me.

So you can feel good about that and know that I am proud of you as well because you know, this is not easy to do. Learning English, studying English is not easy to do. But I hope in some little way I was able to make it more enjoyable for you.

And you can feel good because you made it just a little bit closer to reaching your goal of achieving English fluency. If you’re looking for more lessons to study with, don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. We’ve got hundreds of episodes on our website Culips.com.

And of course, if you’re a Culips member, then you’ll get all of the learning materials and study guides and quizzes and interactive transcripts for all of them. And remember that you can become a member just by following the link in the description for this episode.

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You can chat with them. You can talk with them, you can share your ideas and your opinions. It’s an awesome place for you to be active with your English and that is so important. I can’t highlight it enough.

So if you haven’t joined us on Discord yet, go ahead and do that after you finish listening to this episode, and we’ll be happy to welcome you there. So I’m going to run, but thanks for hanging out with me today. Take care, happy English studies, and I’ll talk to you next time, bye!