Speaker 1: Hey, I hope you're getting fired up for this English lesson,
because today we're gonna talk about how Americans kick off
the summer. Let's dive right in.
Speaker 2: Welcome to another Happy English podcast, coming to you from
New York City. And here's your English teacher, Michael.
Speaker 1: All right, thank you John, and thanks everyone. It's Michael
here from Happy English and I help people speak English better.
And this is Happy English Podcast, Episode eight thirty three,
kicking off Summer. Hello and welcome. Thanks for joining me
for another episode of the Happy English Podcast. I'm your
English teacher Michael, and I'm glad you're here because I've
got something special for you. This week. We're kicking off
of brand new summer series that I'm calling This Week
in American Life. Each week this season, I'll be sharing
some fun facts in cultural tidbits about how Americans live, eat,
and chill during the summer months. And of course I'll
throw in some English learning points like idioms, slang, and
Fraser verbs too. So let's get started with kicking off summer.
According to the Farmer's Almanac, summer begins on Friday, June
twentieth this year. That's the day in the Northern hemisphere
when the sun moves in its most northern path in
the sky, resulting in the day which has the longest
amount of daylight summer. But in the US, summer actually
and unofficially begins on Memorial Day weekend, which is the
last weekend of May. That's when people break out the grills,
by pool floats and start planning beach trips, in backyard barbecues.
In fact, places that are only open in the summer,
like public swimming pools and beaches, officially open for the
season on Memorial Day weekend. And even though school isn't
out yet, that's when the summer vibe really starts. Now
here's a fun fact. Americans eat over one point five
billion pounds of watermelon every year, and most of it
is eaten in the summer. That's a whole lot of watermelon.
It's a kind of a summer must have. We'll see
big watermelon wedges at cookouts, picnics, and even at baseball games.
And speaking of weekends, here's something interesting. Most American adults
say that on summer weekends they just want to relax,
stay home, hang out in the backyard, maybe invite some
friends over for a barbecue. Or a picnic. It's not
always about big trips or events. Sometimes just grilling in
the yard and sipping iced tea is the perfect weekend.
And did you know the official start of grilling season
in the US is Memorial Day weekend. After that, people
are cooking burgers, hot dogs, chicken, veggies, you name it,
pretty much every weekend until Labor Day in September. Nothing
says summer like food cooked outside on the barbecue grill. Now,
let's take a minute to learn a few conversational expressions
that you'll hear a lot during summer in the US.
The first one is kick off. This phrasal verb comes
from the start of a football game called the kickoff.
That's when the ball is first kicked into motion to
start the game. In everyday conversation, kick off means to
start something, usually some kind of event, like this year,
we kicked off the summer with a barbecue at my
cousin's house, and the town where he lives kicked off
the holiday weekend with a big fireworks show. Hey, why
don't we kick off this weekend with some cold drinks
and good music? How do you usually kick off your weekend?
Next up is chill out, which means to relax and
take it easy, like we're just gonna chill out by
the pool all afternoon. And these days you might hear
people just use the word chill by itself, like after
a long week at work, I need to just chill
at home this weekend. Hey, if you're not doing anything
on Saturday, come over and chill out. We'll put some
drinks on ice and crank up the stereo. And finally,
and especially when the weather gets warm, you'll hear the
phrase fire up the grill, like it's time to fire
up the grill. Everyone's getting hungry. We often add the
preposition up to a verb to mean do that completely,
or do that with effort and passion. And if there's
one thing Americans are passion about in the summer, it's grilling.
So fire up the grill means to start the barbecue
and begin cooking outdoors, like it rained a bit in
the park, but as soon as the sun came out,
we fired up the grill. My friend Paul loves to
fire up the grill on Sundays and cook up some sausages.
Classic summer vibes. Right by the way, we also say
that someone is fired up, which means they are excited
about something. In the summer, everyone gets fired up for
the free concerts in the park. I'm always fired up
about helping you speak English better, and I hope you
keep getting fired up about this podcast. All right, that's
it for this week's slice of American Life. Next week
we'll talk about fireworks, food, and the big Fourth of
July celebration. Until then, stay cool, stay curious, and keep learning,
and keep in mind the best way to remember English
like this and any other word or phrase in English,
is to take that word or phrase, write it in
a sentence that's true for you or true in your world,
and then memorize your sentences. Hey, do you want to
get more practice using your English, then you should join
my podcast Learner's study group. There you can make new friends,
join us for live group lessons every week where we
practice these podcast lessons together. Plus you get access to
the pdf, transcript and audio download for every Happy English
podcast in the past and in the future. And on
top of that, each episode has exercises where you can
practice this English point with speaking and writing. Check by me.
To learn more. Just visit Myhappy English dot com and
choose podcast Lesson eight thirty three. Remember learning another language
is not easy, but it's not impossible, and I'm here
to help you on your journey.
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