Subtitle (212)
0:00Hello and welcome to bonus episode number one
five one, 151 of the Culips English Podcast. How's
0:07it going? My name is Andrew. I'll be your host
and your English study buddy for today. And in
0:12this week's story, I'm going to tell you about a
burglar who has been terrorizing my home all week.
0:20Along the way, as you listen to this story,
you'll be able to build your vocabulary and learn
0:24some great expressions, as well as just grow your
overall English fluency and communication skills.
0:31So, without any further ado, let's
jump in and get started. Here we go.
0:39A couple of weeks ago, my wife and I celebrated
the two-year anniversary of us moving into our
0:45home. I couldn't believe it. It seems like
those two years flew by in the blink of an
0:50eye. And if something "flies by in the blink of
an eye," it means that it happens really fast.
0:55Like you blink your eyes, and it happens.
It's finished. So, it feels like those two
1:00years just flew by in the blink of an eye
and we've been in this home for two years.
1:05Long time Culips listeners will know that my wife
and I bought an old home here in Seoul, South
1:11Korea, where we live. And then we took a couple
of years to renovate it and then we moved in. And
1:17for the first year and a half of living in this
home, we really focused on the interior. And our
1:24exterior, our little front yard that we have was
nothing special at all. Really quite unsightly.
1:31To be honest, it's just sort of like a cement
walled-in area. So, the interior was our focus,
1:37and we didn't worry about the exterior at all.
However, once we got the interior finished and
1:44to our liking, then it was time to focus on the
exterior. And that's what we've been doing over
1:49the last several months is decorating our yard.
Maybe decorating isn't the best word to use,
1:55although we did do some decorations. We
installed some lighting, and we bought some
2:00outdoor furniture, some chairs, and a table
so we can have like a little barbecue party
2:06outside. It's quite lovely and it has a nice
atmosphere at night when we turn the lights on,
2:11and we grill some food out there. It's awesome.
But we also did some landscaping, and my wife has
2:18enjoyed gardening for a long time. Pretty much the
whole time I've known her, she's been a gardener,
2:24but she's always focused on house plants and
plants that grow inside. And she's especially
2:30fond of cacti and cactus and these kinds of
tropical house plants as well. So, plants that
2:37don't really grow outside very well here in Korea.
But we needed to do something with our yard. It
2:44was like I said, this kind of ugly concrete space.
Like the floor is just a concrete slab and then
2:52there are these walls that act as like a fence,
but they're all made out of brick and painted
2:57white. So yeah, just not like the most pleasant
space outside. It felt very bleak. So yeah,
3:05we decorated with the furniture and the lights and
then we've been landscaping and gardening over,
3:11well, this spring and now into the summer as well.
And I believe I've mentioned a few times on Culips
3:17about my wife buying some trees. And us
visiting a local nursery and buying some
3:24trees. And a "nursery" is what we call a garden
center, a place that grows and sells plants. So,
3:31we visited the local nursery here and I guess
my wife went a little bit crazy with the trees.
3:39She bought, on last count, I believe, 13 different
trees, which is especially crazy considering the
3:47small size of our yard. Here in Seoul, there
are tons of people living in the city. It's a
3:53mega city and space is at a premium. And so, in
our little yard, our little corner of the world,
4:00we tried to fit in as many trees as possible.
And I think my wife did a good job at doing
4:06this. Of course, not all of these trees are
like full-blown, grown-up trees. We bought them
4:12as small little trees and some are just really,
really tiny, and hopefully in the future, after
4:19several years, will develop into a bigger tree.
But as of right now, they’re only, I don't know,
4:2630 to 50 centimeters tall, pretty small.
But we did splurge and buy some bigger,
4:31more mature trees that were already six, seven,
eight years old probably. And when we bought them,
4:39it was still, I guess, the winter, just coming
out of the winter into the spring. And so,
4:45the trees looked like those old-fashioned
brooms. I don't know if you've ever seen
4:49those old-fashioned brooms that are just made
out of twigs and sticks. And that's what these
4:55trees look like when we brought them to our
yard. Like, we're like, "Are these trees even
5:00alive?" They just look like a bunch of dead
branches because it was still the winter. So,
5:04there were no blooms or leaves or anything. They
were just totally, like, sticks pretty much.
5:10But anyways, we planted them and as the
winter turned into spring, turned into summer,
5:16now it's been amazing to watch their progression.
They've really bloomed and are like these huge,
5:23big trees now and are growing so fast. I guess
our location is just perfect because it gets
5:30a mix of sun and shade and yeah, I don't
know whatever else the trees need to grow,
5:37but they're growing really well.
And I'm so happy about this because one thing that
5:43I really wanted in our home is to try and make
it feel like an escape from the city, which is
5:49hard to do because we're like right in the middle
of the city and there's urban area all around us.
5:55And one thing that's... I mean, I love
my home and I really enjoy living here,
6:00but one thing that is kind of unfortunate about
the home is just that it's placed in the middle
6:05of this huge urban area, right? And so, you can
never really feel like you've escaped the city.
6:12And until recently, whenever I would look
out the big window in the living room,
6:18then I would just look out at this huge apartment
complex that is across the road from us. And if
6:24you've never seen a Korean apartment complex
before, they serve a function. They're like
6:31very high in utility. And what I mean, they're
"high in utility" is that they provide a lot
6:36of benefit and a lot of good for many, many
people. So, they're like really high on the
6:41utility index of the good that they serve in
the world and the function and the purpose.
6:47However, they're quite unsightly in my opinion.
They're not really beautiful architectural feats
6:56or anything like this. They serve a purpose.
They do their job well at housing a lot of
7:00people. However, they are quite unsightly.
I don't really like the look of them.
7:05So, you know, every morning when I'd get up and
I'd have my morning coffee and I'd look out my
7:10window, I would have to just imagine that
I was looking at the mountains or looking
7:15at the ocean or looking at the forest or
something because in reality, I'd just
7:19be looking at this ugly apartment complex.
And so, I always dream of instead of having
7:25to look at this apartment complex, if
we could grow some trees and plants
7:29in our yard and for them to grow tall enough
that they would cover the apartment complex.
7:35So, when I look outside, I could just look and see
the trees and it would kind of be like, I'm hiding
7:43from the rest of the city, that I'm blocked
off from the rest of the city. So, I'm happy
7:47to report that this is pretty much the case now.
These trees have grown so quickly that when I look
7:53outside, wow, I don't have to see the apartment
complex anymore. I can just look at the trees.
7:59The trees haven't completely covered the
complex. I can still see it a little bit,
8:03but it's getting there. And I think in another
year or two, probably that dream will come true.
8:08And I'll be able to have my urban oasis here
in my yard. So, I'm feeling great about that.
8:15One of the cool trees or plants, I
guess it's not a tree, it's a bush
8:19to be specific. One of the cool bushes that
my wife purchased was a blueberry bush. So,
8:26I think this is the only plant… I'm
just going through my head here. Yeah,
8:31I think this is the only plant that we have that
is actually edible. It is the blueberry bush.
8:37So yeah, my wife bought this blueberry bush and
again, it's growing really, really well. And I,
8:46you know, when I first saw it, when she brought
it home, I was like, "We're not going to have any
8:49blueberries from this thing." Like, "What is she
trying to do? It's cute. It's a cute idea, but
8:54it's not actually going to produce fruit. Is it?"
Well, I was totally wrong because this blueberry
8:59bush has actually produced a lot of berries,
many, many berries. And we've been snacking
9:06on blueberries all summer long here so
far. And yeah, it's just one bush. So,
9:12it's not like we can have bowls and bowls
of blueberries. But every day we can eat
9:17some fresh blueberries, which are just delicious.
One of my favorite fruits, super healthy for you.
9:24And although I do eat them fresh from time
to time, it's rather expensive to buy them
9:30at the supermarket. So instead, usually I eat
frozen blueberries. So, I'm really happy about
9:36this that I can eat the fresh blueberries right
from our bush in our yard this summer. How cool!
9:43However, the blueberries have attracted a
lot of attention in our neighborhood with
9:49the local birds. And earlier
in the episode at the start,
9:53I said that we have been terrorized by a burglar
over the last week. And it's totally true.
10:00By the way, a "burglar" is someone who steals
something from you. So, there could be like
10:05a burglar who breaks into a home and steals
something from a home or a burglar who goes into
10:11a store and steals something from a store or a
bank, that kind of person we could call a burglar.
10:17Similar words are "thief," "criminal." OK,
all of these words are similar, a burglar.
10:24And so, we have been terrorized by a
blueberry bush burglar. A lot of Bs there.
10:34By the way, this is another, this is a
very high-level word, but a good one to
10:38know. It is "alliteration," alliteration. And
alliteration is a literary device in English
10:45where we have a lot of the same sounds in a
connected sequence. And usually, we use this
10:51in poetry or maybe titles when you're giving a
title to maybe a TV show or a movie or a book,
10:59then alliteration is really cool. So, I have that
repeated B sound, right? Blueberry bush burglar.
11:07And can you guess who is stealing the blueberries
from our yard? That's right, it's a bird! It's
11:15a bird. The birds in the neighborhood have found
the blueberry bush. So, the burglar is a bird and
11:21it's stealing the blueberries. A lot of Bs there.
Anyways, originally once we planted this blueberry
11:29bush in our yard, I thought that it's not
going to take long for the word to get out
11:33and for the neighborhood birds to locate the
blueberries and start stealing the blueberries.
11:39Because in our previous apartment that we lived
in, there was also a blueberry bush kind of in
11:45the parking area for that apartment building.
And there were some older folks that lived in
11:52the building that maintained a little garden
there. And one of the plants that they had was
11:57a blueberry bush. And the birds would just eat the
blueberries all the time, constantly. And yeah,
12:04I remember one of the grandpas that lived in that
building. He installed some kind of netting over
12:09the bush to try and stop the birds from eating the
blueberries. But it didn't really work very well.
12:14And so, I thought the same thing would happen
in our yard that right away the neighborhood
12:18birds would find it and eat the berries. However,
that wasn't really true. And it went like three,
12:24four weeks without any of the
birds finding the bush at all.
12:29I guess it was just in like a sweet
location where they couldn't spot it.
12:33I have no idea really how birds forage for
food. And "forage" means to collect, right,
12:40to hunt and collect food. And this is what birds
do really well, foraging for different types of
12:46insects and berries and whatever else they eat.
So, I don't know if they use their sense of smell
12:52or only rely on their eyes. I don't know how birds
do it. But for whatever reason, they didn't find
12:58our berry bush for quite a long time. So that was
great. We were able to enjoy the blueberries and
13:05just feast on them, munch on them every morning,
just have a couple of berries as a little treat.
13:12However, over the last week, the birds have
found it in one bird species in particular.
13:18I'm not sure if it's the same bird coming
back again and again, or if he told all of
13:24his friends and they're all coming in a sequence.
But there's this bird here that lives in Korea.
13:30And I looked up its native range. It ranges from
kind of northern Japan and throughout Japan and
13:36also throughout the Korean peninsula. A little
bit of eastern China and into like the northern
13:43part of the Philippines. So, if you live in
East Asia, then maybe you know this bird.
13:49The English name is the "brown-eared bulbul." And
when I was researching this bird on Wikipedia,
13:56I actually learned that this word, "bulbul"
spelled B-U-L-B-U-L, is originally a Persian word.
14:04So, I know we have a lot of Persian native
speakers who listen to the podcast. Shout
14:09out to all the Farsi speakers out there who
are listening to Culips right now. Guys,
14:14you can let me know if this actually is a word
from your language. And that would be really cool
14:19if that was a word of Persian origin or Farsi
origin that made it into the English language.
14:25Anyways, it was a new word to me. Now this
brown-eared bulbul looks rather plain. It's
14:31like this dark gray color, almost a little black.
And it's got these two circles that are dark brown
14:38on the side of its head, which I suppose are its
brown ears. Why we call it the brown-eared bulbul.
14:46And as far as I know, the males and females both
look similar. So, you know with many bird species,
14:52the females will look rather plain, and the
males will be more decorative and have a lot
14:58of fancy colors. However, I believe with
this bird species, both the males and the
15:02females are rather plain and yeah, not too
amazing to look at to be honest with you.
15:10So, this week we've had these brown-eared bulbuls
stealing our blueberries. And I'm not sure if it's
15:16just one bird or several birds because they all
look the same. So, I can't tell. But at first,
15:24when they first found the blueberries, they were
rather timid, and my wife actually captured it
15:30on camera. So, I'm going to show the video
clip in the YouTube video of this episode.
15:35If you're watching on YouTube, you can see
this brown-eared bulbul fly into our yard
15:40and swoop down and steal the blueberry. Now,
at first, like I said, they were rather timid,
15:46so they did it in several steps. They'd fly
into the yard, look around, and see if the
15:51coast was clear. This is a great expression.
"The coast is clear." If the coast is clear,
15:57it means that there's nobody watching.
So, they would come into the yard,
16:01check around, make sure the coast is clear.
Nobody is watching and they could steal a
16:06blueberry without getting in trouble, like getting
caught by a predator or getting caught by us.
16:11So, they would check, make sure everything was
OK, and then slowly hop up to the blueberry bush,
16:17fly into the bush, eat a berry,
and then fly away. That is how
16:21they first started stealing the berries.
But now they're much more sophisticated.
16:25They figured out how to just swoop into
the yard and fly down and grab a berry
16:31in mid-flight without having to land. And
yeah, they've really learned quite quickly
16:38actually how to steal berries very efficiently.
So that's actually kind of cool to see. However,
16:45I'm a little bit angry at these birds for
stealing my delicious blueberries. Like,
16:49I want to eat the blueberries. And yeah, I don't
mind sharing a berry or two, but they're coming
16:56in like all the time and stealing the berries.
So, my wife works from home several days a week,
17:03and she's posted up right beside the door to our
yard, and she keeps it open here in the summer.
17:10And so, she's been pretty good at scaring away
the birds. If they're taking too many berries,
17:15we'll let them take a few, but we want to have
some for ourselves too. That's part of the joy
17:20of having this kind of cool blueberry bush
is that we can enjoy some of the berries.
17:24So, she's been pretty good at scaring the birds
away and me too. I've been spending more time in
17:32the yard recently during the afternoon. You
know, if I have some time here at home, I'll
17:37just sit in the yard. And if I'm out there, then
they're too timid to come in and try and steal the
17:42berries. But if we're both inside and not paying
attention, then that's when the burglary happens.
17:48And we have a new dog in our home as well. We
adopted our pet dog, O’Wall, about two months
17:54ago now. And I've been trying to teach her to
bark when the birds come into the yard. However,
18:01this has been totally unsuccessful. I've been
joking with the dog. I'm like, "Come on. O’Wall,
18:08you're just sleeping all day. You want to be a
part of this family, a member of this family,
18:13then you have to do something. You have to
protect our house from these burglars. So,
18:16when you see the birds out there, you have to
bark or scare the birds away.” But she's totally
18:21oblivious to that fact. And she just sleeps pretty
much all of the time when the birds are active in
18:28the morning and in the afternoon stealing their
berries. So, that has been totally unsuccessful,
18:33my training attempts to turn our cute poodle,
O’Wall, into a security guard, a guard dog,
18:40hasn't really been successful at all.
But yeah, at the end of the day,
18:45I guess it's OK. It's like the price that we
have to pay to the local wildlife. And all in
18:52all. I'm really happy at how my urban oasis is
coming together. This little slice of nature
18:58in my yard here in the middle of Seoul. And
a slice of nature should include some plants,
19:05like all of these beautiful trees that my wife is
maintaining in her garden. But also, some animals,
19:12right? And so, I think, although I've been calling
them burglars and saying that they're terrorizing
19:16our home and our yard. And I've been painting
these brown-eared bulbuls in a very bad light
19:24and saying a lot of bad things about them.
At the end of the day, I think I'm actually
19:28happy that we have some animal friends visiting
our yard because this is what nature should be,
19:34right? It should be plants and animals and insects
and birds. All of these things. So, I'm glad we
19:39have these visitors. And I'm really happy about
how the progress in our yard is turning out.
19:48Well, that brings us to the end of this week's
story. If you made it all the way here to the end,
19:52congratulations. You completed an English
study session. You can be proud of that. And
19:57this is what you need to do to build your
English fluency. You need to spend a lot
20:01of time listening to natural English, just
like the kind you heard me use here today.
20:06If you have any questions or
comments about this episode,
20:09let me know over on our Discord server. It's
free for everyone to join and you can find
20:14the link in the description for this episode.
I'd also like you to leave a comment with this
20:20week's completion code. You can leave either
just the one word for the completion code,
20:25or you can leave an example sentence with
the completion code. And that will signal
20:30to me and all of our other fabulous members of our
Culips community that you completed this episode.
20:37So, for this week, let's go with the code word
"burglar," burglar. And there should be some
20:45fun example sentences with this completion code
burglar. So, leave them in the comments either
20:50on our Discord or YouTube or Instagram. And I
can't wait to see what you come up with. Take
20:56care everyone. And I'll catch you in the
next Culips episode. Until then, goodbye.
