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Talking about technology

Episode 241115 / 15 Nov 2024

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Introduction

Beth and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about technology. Learn to talk about your technology habits.

Vocabulary

technology
new scientific things that make life easier, such as smartphones and computers

tech-savvy
good at using new technology

Grammar tip:
Use present simple to talk about habits and things you always do.

  • I check my phone every day.

Use present continuous to talk about things that you are doing at that moment

  • I'm checking my phone. I want to know the football scores.

Transcript

Beth
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English. In this podcast, we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Beth.

Neil
And I’m Neil. Remember, you can read along with this podcast on our website: bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
Hi, Neil. How are you? Neil are you checking your phone? We're recording!

Neil
Sorry, Beth. Yes, I'm just looking at my phone. I’m just checking the football scores. Finished now.

Beth
OK, good. Well, today we're talking all about technology.

Neil
Yes, and technology is what we call new things that we use to make life easier like phones, computers and the internet. We’ll talk about new technology and how much we use it.

Beth
OK. Great. Well, let's get started. Now, Neil, you just said, "I'm checking my phone". That is the present continuous and you said it because you were checking the scores or checking your phone right then. Right at that moment.

But I have a question for you in the present simple, which is how often do you use technology?

Neil
So I use technology every day, many times every day. I check my phone a lot. I use a Bluetooth speaker. I sometimes play games with my son on his video console.

Beth
OK. So you use some technology.

Neil
I do, yes. How about you, Beth?

Beth
I read quite a lot on a tablet, so I do read some books, but I tend to use
technology to read. And I have been learning Spanish, or I’m learning Spanish at the moment using an app on my phone. So I'm using technology for that a little bit.

Neil
And what's your favourite piece of technology that makes your life easy?

Beth
Well, I use a smoothie maker all the time. So, especially when I'm working from home, I chuck any old fruit and vegetables in there and make a smoothie.

What about you?

Neil
So, I've got a bread maker.

Beth
Ooh, that's cool.

Neil
Yeah and so I put all the ingredients together and in the morning we have lovely fresh bread.

Beth
Nice. Would you say that you are tech-savvy? Are you good at using new technology?

Neil
No, not at all! Eventually I learn the technology, but I never really get excited about new technology until lots of other people are already using it.

Beth
Yeah, I feel the same. I only really feel comfortable using technology when I have practised and got used to it.

Neil
Yeah. So, Beth, is there any new piece of technology that you would like to get that you don't have at the moment?

Beth
Well, I used to have a really good camera, but it's now about 10 years old. So, I think that technology has moved on quite a bit since then.

So, I'd quite like to get a really good new camera. But the camera's on phones are quite good these days, but it's always nice to have something really good for when you go on holiday and that sort of thing.

Neil
Let's recap some of the language we heard during the conversation.

We had technology, new scientific things that make our life easier, such as smartphones and computers.

Beth
Tech-savvy, good at using technology.

Neil
We learned to use the present simple to talk about our technology habits, things we always do. For example, I use my phone way too much.

Beth
And we learnt to use the present continuous to talk about things we are doing at this moment in time. For example, Neil, you are still checking the football scores!

Neil
I am. Sorry, Beth. But only because my home team is beating yours at football.

Beth
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Whatever!

Neil
That's it for this episode. If you want more easy English, try our video series, The London to Edinburgh Challenge. All episodes are available now on our website: bbclearningenglish.com

Beth
Next time on Real Easy English, we'll talk about our hobbies. Bye for now.

Neil
Bye!

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