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0:00Hello everybody! How's it going? My name
is Alina and I'm your study guide writer,
0:05Discord moderator, and small group conversation
class leader here at Culips. And today I'm going
0:13to host this community update episode for
you. And you probably know that normally we
0:19do it together with Andrew, but I'm flying solo
today, so please bear with me. It's my first time
0:26doing it on my own, so I hope it goes well.
So if you're a regular listener of Culips,
0:32you probably will know that we normally talk about
our monthly challenges here in these community
0:37update episodes. And I'm definitely gonna do
that, no worries. But before I get there, I would
0:45like to talk just real quick about our meetup,
Culips meetup, that we had in Prague in July.
0:54Jeez, it feels like it's been ages, but it
literally just happened last month. And it was
1:01an incredible, just absolutely wonderful event.
And I was buzzing for a whole week or two after.
1:10I would just like to say a quick thank you to
everybody who joined our meetup. So we had Marky,
1:16who really, really helped us a lot. Thank you so
much, Marky, for being a great host, for helping
1:22us organize it, and helping us, you know, to kind
of navigate and just showing us around. Also,
1:31we had Birgit, we had Manfred, both from Germany.
We had Lyudmila and Katerina. And we had Jin and
1:40Mon join us as well. And yeah, we will definitely
share a picture. I made sure to take a picture of
1:47all of us. We had lovely chats, we spent about
six hours just like talking and laughing. And
1:54the best part of it was that everybody was able
to understand absolutely everything, at least I
1:59hope that they did. But I really enjoyed how,
you know, everybody was so respectful. Anytime
2:06somebody was trying to like, tell a story or
share something, everyone else was very quiet,
2:11you know, listening attentively, asking questions.
So it was a very comfortable environment. It was
2:17extremely fun to meet some people in person.
So since that event went so well, I thought,
2:26hmm, maybe we should just organize another one.
And it just so happens that I'm going to Germany
2:32in October this year. And I thought for a second,
and yeah, Andrew and I both agreed that it would
2:40be a great idea to organize another Culips meetup
on October 18th, which is Saturday in Hamburg,
2:48because I'm going to be flying back home from
Hamburg. So we will definitely provide all the
2:54details a little bit later. But for now, all the
listeners from Germany, you can start packing your
3:00bags. I really hope to see as many of you as,
you know, as possible. And of course, everyone
3:07else who lives in Europe, maybe some neighboring
countries, you're all welcome to join. I mean,
3:12everybody's welcome to join. It doesn't
matter where you live. But realistically,
3:16I'm guessing that people who live in Europe
are more likely to be able to join. So that's
3:21gonna be fun. I'm looking forward to it. I can't
wait. I'm so excited. I hope to see you there.
3:30So let's talk about our September challenge
now. And the theme for this challenge is
3:36work. Basically, what's gonna happen is
you're gonna get some questions that are
3:42work related. And they could be like about
different work situations, like an interview,
3:47maybe dress code, maybe some taboo topics
that you can't discuss with your coworkers,
3:52stuff like that. So the idea behind this challenge
is actually that it's a bit of a recap challenge.
3:59So what I was thinking is that, you know, you can,
of course, just answer the questions, right, just
4:04like the way you want to, whatever first comes
to mind. But if you really, really want to work,
4:11you know, and train your skills here, what I
suggest, in preparation to, you know, doing this
4:19challenge is to review some previous challenges
that we did before. Because we actually covered
4:25some really good topics there. For instance, just
a couple months ago, we had a challenge where we
4:31learned to express our opinion politely, to
agree, to disagree, to list our arguments.
4:36So you can definitely use that. And then we also
studied a few grammar topics like past simple and
4:43present perfect. We covered some phrasal verbs,
some adjectives, some expressions with the verb
4:49"get." And you can definitely, I'm absolutely
sure you can definitely use some of those.
4:55So, in order to find in case you didn't
participate in those challenges, which is totally
4:59fine, like, you don't have to, you can be totally
new to this whole thing. There can be easily found
5:06in our monthly challenge channel on Discord, which
you can find the link to in the description for
5:14this episode, we'll definitely leave the link
there. But if you go to the pinned messages,
5:20because I made sure to pin every single challenge
that we had. So, if you go to pinned messages,
5:26you can find all the previous challenges. But
especially if you have participated in those,
5:32it should definitely be easier for you because
you hopefully still remember some of those
5:37things. So like I said, a bit of a recap, and a
good opportunity to, you know, review everything
5:43we studied before. But if you haven't participated
in those challenges, it's like a bonus opportunity
5:49for you, I guess, to learn some extra things as
well, as you are taking part in this challenge.
5:59Another important thing I need to mention about
this challenge is that you will get a task not
6:04every day, but every other day, every second
day. So you will have a bit of time, you know,
6:08maybe to go back, look at the responses the other
people are sending, maybe respond to somebody,
6:14comment, agree, disagree, whichever you prefer,
you can just be a silent viewer. But yes, every
6:22other day, so no pressure, you can always come
back. For example, if you missed a couple days,
6:27you can always just do two or three on the same
day. I personally would recommend to take it,
6:34you know, one day at a time, of course. But
look, we're all busy, we have busy lives,
6:38work, family. So realistically, you know,
whichever you go with is going to be great
6:45as long as you participate, as long as you take
time, and, you know, put some effort into it.
6:52So the challenge is completely free. As always, we
never charge anything for participation in these
6:58challenges. And if you complete every single task
of this challenge, you will receive a certificate
7:05at the end of the challenge. But for that, you
have to really do every single assignment, every
7:11single task, I will be checking very thoroughly
for that, as I usually do. But that is personally
7:17my favorite part of the challenge, because I
get to, you know, reward you for your hard work.
7:23So how do you complete these tasks? How do you
complete these assignments? You have a choice,
7:28as always, you can send your responses as text
messages, but I definitely recommend you use,
7:34you know, that you use voice messages,
because you get some speaking practice,
7:39you get listening practice, right, if you
listen to the other voice messages. But like,
7:44even if you're feeling a little bit shy, you
know, you don't want to send your messages,
7:48I would still recommend that you, if you send
a text, for instance, right, I would still
7:52recommend that you record it just for yourself,
you know, it's still going to be good practice,
7:56you can just listen back to it, you know, check.
Maybe you will be able to hear some mistakes
8:02you're making. Practice your pronunciation, you
know, it's always good. It's, yeah, it never hurts
8:08to practice all the different skills. And this is
a great chance for you to, you know, practice not
8:14just writing and reading and, you know, maybe
just answering questions in English. Of course,
8:17it's still great practice, right, if you send
your text messages, responding to questions,
8:22but it's definitely going to be better for you,
if you try and maybe, you know, at least send a
8:28few voice messages. And if you have any questions
about how to do it, you know where to find me,
8:34I'm in Discord, feel free to ask questions, I
will guide you through any problems you might
8:41have. So no worries about that. Plus, we also
have some very experienced regulars, you know,
8:46who've been participating in our challenges
for over a year now, because we've been having
8:50them for over a year, actually. So yeah, you
have a choice, but maybe challenge yourself a
8:58little bit. That's definitely something I would
encourage you to do, for sure, as your teacher.
9:03So that is everything you need to know
now. I hope to see you participating in
9:07our September challenge. Thank you so much
for listening. I'll talk to you soon. Bye.
