Coffee and Conversation for ESL Listening
Real English conversations for ESL listening practice. Each episode, your hosts introduce a new topic of conversation for upper intermediate and advanced English learners to practice their listening skills and learn new vocabulary. Throughout the conversation, there are also opportunities to learn about American culture. You'll benefit from just listening to these authentic conversations, but to get the most out of this podcast, be sure to download the show notes for each episode. There you will find more information about the vocabulary used in the conversation and additional cultural and language notes regarding this topic. Get the show notes at realcoolenglish.com/podcast
Coffee and Conversation for ESL Listening
Episode 36: Coffee Break 4 - Would You Rather 2
Join the conversation and share your thoughts!
Join Donielle and Khrystyna for a relaxed coffee break episode filled with laughs, quirky “Would You Rather” questions, and a surprisingly effective sleep hack. From elevator stories to fashion debates, it’s an easygoing chat for fun listening and vocabulary practice!
To get the most out of this podcast, be sure to download the show notes for each episode. There you will find more information about the vocabulary used in the conversation and additional cultural and language notes regarding this topic.
realcoolenglish.com/podcast
Music: Wake Up to the Renaissance by AudioCoffee from Pixabay
D Welcome to Coffee and Conversation for ESL Listening. I'm Donielle.
K And I'm Khrystyna, so grab a cup and join the conversation.
D Hello, good evening, how are you?
K Oh, I’m alright. Yeah, it is evening. You're right. It's gonna get nice and dark here.
D Yeah, I'm looking at you and I see nothing but darkness in the background. A little bit of your face kind of. It’s been a long day, hasn’t it?
K Yeah, yeah, but you know what? We're going into a weekend, so it's all good.
D Yes, we're doing this on a Friday night, which is kind of unusual.
K You know what, some people go and party for fun. We do podcast recordings for fun. We're the cool ones.
D Hanging out with the podcast crew and having some coffee. Alright.
K We're real adventurous on Friday night. That's right.
D You know it; everyone is jealous.
K That’s right; they would be jealous.
D So listen, today we are doing a coffee break. We haven't done one of those in a while. You know me, I love a good game or something funny, something silly conversation-wise. You know, sometimes you just need that silly topic just to unwind; stress relief, all that.
K Mm-hmm. That’s true.
D Oh! You know, before I get into that, I don't know why I just thought of this right now. I said stress relief and …
K I need that.
D Yeah, we definitely need some stress relief, but on the last episode that, well at least, I don't know when this is coming out, but the last episode that we've recorded as of now was about stress. And we were talking about not getting sleep. And I discovered a hack. And for those of you who don't know what a hack is, it's like a little tip or trick or easy way to do something, to make something that's difficult, make it easy, right? And yeah, and I’ve got to tell you about it because, you know, if you have trouble sleeping, you might want to try it.
K Well, what is it?
D And for those out there listening, you know, maybe if you have sleeping problems too, you can try this as well. It is called cognitive shuffling. Have you heard of this?
K No, I have not. What is it? What do you do?
D Well, it’s so easy. I hate these things. Sometimes they're like, oh, do this breathing like four, eight, 17. I don't know. And I can never remember what the number is. So I'm laying there trying to remember how many counts I'm supposed to be breathing and holding. And then I get myself so distracted thinking about that, that now I still can't sleep, right? Because I'm probably doing it wrong, and so whatever. So this is super easy. What you do is you think of a word like maybe a common everyday word that's like four or five letters. And like say the word chair - has to be something simple. And then what you do is you start with the first letter of the word, say C for chair. And in your mind, you start going over all of the words that you can think of that start with the letter C. And then you just keep going until you can't think anymore. And then you move to the next letter to H and then you do the same thing. Yeah. And for me, like by the third letter, I'm gone.
K Really?
D Yes!
K Okay, I'll have to try it out.
D Yeah, you have to try it.
K Interesting, because I feel like it would have the opposite effect on me because I'll have to like work my brain to figure out all the words and all that but that might be an interesting thing to try.
D Well, it is and it's still weird because like, you know, like when you're just about to fall asleep and all of a sudden, weird images come into your mind. So I'm in the middle of doing this, you know, thinking of words. And next thing I know, my mind will be somewhere else. And I'm like, oh, wow, I'm really going, I'm drifting off here. So yeah, it's, it's really been helpful. So you got to check it out.
K So I've been recently just reading a book before bed, right? And I feel like that helps me too because I start drifting off and you’re kind of rereading the same sentence. But the problem is I read my book on my phone on the Kindle. Well, here's what happens. I start drifting off and my phone falls out of my hands and hits me in the face. And I'm like, well, now I'm awake again.
D That's happened to me too. Yeah. Yeah, definitely. Well, anyway, try it. Um, see if it works for you. I was amazed at how well it worked. And it's cool too, because like, say you're, you're thinking of these words and it's amazing how quickly you can think of the words and the randomness of the words that come to your mind. You find yourself going, Oh, that's interesting. Like why, why did my brain go to that word? You know, it's interesting. Well, anyway.
K I’ll have to try it out.
D I talked too long about that, I just thought of it and I wanted to say it. Okay. So what we're doing today is another round of … drum roll. Would you rather?
K One of my favorites.
D Yes. So I've got some questions for you and I will ask you and then, you know, I'll tell you my thoughts and then we'll, we'll keep going. Okay. So, for the first one, um…would you rather…this is kind of a funny one. Would you rather be stuck in an elevator without cell [phone] service for an hour or be stuck in traffic with cell service for two hours?
K So rather than, you know, stuck in elevator without cell service or for an hour or stuck in traffic for two hours with service.
D Yeah. So it's, you know, one shorter, one's longer, but one's without, you know, cell service.
K So if I am, I might go with the elevator, right? If I am…I have [been] stuck in elevator before.
D No!
K Yes, it happened to me several times back in Ukraine. We lived on the ninth floor and obviously there's an elevator and every once in a while, the elevator would get stuck or the power would go out. And I remember…I mean, I got stuck in [the] elevator several times, but this one time I got stuck in [the] elevator with a couple of my neighbors. And we called for help to get people to get us out, and the problem is the elevator got stuck between floors. So you couldn’t just get out or, you know, jump out. They had to pull me out of the elevator. So, I would choose [the] elevator.
D After all of that, you're going to choose the elevator. Are you kidding me?
K Yeah, I mean it wasn't really that scary. I mean if I'm by myself in that elevator for an hour, it probably would get a little scarier, but there is a good opportunity for a nap and I wouldn't pass that [up].
D That's true. You know what, in the car, no matter how much traffic, you still can't go to sleep. So, yeah.
K Right, right you have to pay attention, right because you never know so… but I remember one time in college I got stuck in [the] elevator with [a] bunch of friends and you think it's fun right you know there's [a] bunch of you here and all that; well, not so much fun when you start running out of oxygen because there's too many people, right? So… nobody passed out but it got a little sketchy.
D Oh my gosh, I'm getting so stressed. Well, cause that's the thing. I don't, I don't like being confined in, places like that. And there was a…when I went to New Orleans this last time, it was this really cool old kind of strange building and they had this elevator. It was so, so, so tiny. It was one of the old ones, you know, and it's not like it was the open grate kind of thing. No, it was, you know…And I walked in there with my suitcase and that's all I could fit: me and the suitcase. And I go, oh no, I think not. And so I came out of the elevator, I left my suitcase there and I pressed the button and I sent my suitcase up by itself. And then I met it up there. Because it's just terrifying the idea of being stuck somewhere. No thank you.
K Yeah, yeah, so you I assume you would stay in traffic for two hours.
D Yeah, I mean, that doesn't sound great. But you know, the other thing is, I mean, if I'm stuck somewhere, the first thing that comes to my mind is… you already know where this is going…
K I know exactly what you’re going to say!
D …Gotta go to the bathroom. So, you know, being in a car, that would be inconvenient too, but at least I could get out and go somewhere if I had to.
K Wait, didn't you once? Or do we want to leave that story for another episode?
D That's right, I forgot about that. So we were stuck in traffic and it was like probably about two hours. And I was like, man, you know, the minute you start thinking, well, what if I have to go to the bathroom? Well, then of course, then you do, right? And then it got to be desperate. And I was like, shoot. And I noticed there was one of those RV kinds of things a couple vehicles ahead. And I was like, “I'm going in!” So I walked over and I knocked on the door and I said, “Excuse me, could I please use your bathroom?” and they're like, “Sure, honey, come on in.”
K You know, and that's so sweet because you don't know how many people would actually do that and you know, but that was sweet of them.
D Man, I was desperate too. I was like, it's either that or those trees over there are starting to look kind of good.
K Oh you know what? I remember this one time it was during COVID times. We had to go and get, I think, COVID tests or something like that where you had to go to this place and there would be lines and lines of cars, right? It was like a different hospital outside of town. And we went there and I remember we sat in line for hours in that town to finally get to the actual hospital. And I don't remember if it was testing or vaccine or something. So we start getting out of the town to drive home. And of course, both my son and my husband were like, we gotta go to the bathroom. And we're in the middle of nowhere, right? There's nothing, there's nowhere you can go, nowhere to pull over. Guess where those dudes went to the bathroom? Cornfield.
D Yeah. Well, they have a better option.
K Yes, they do. Cornfield’s just fine.
D No problem. Okay. This is taking a strange turn, this conversation. I don't know. All right, okay, all right, would you…oh, this is a good one! This is right up my alley here. Would you rather only be able to dress in clothes from the 1970s or only be able to wear clothes from the 1980s? Those are two decidedly crazy fashion decades.
K So, I don't know the 70s.
D Come on, you've seen some movies, please.
K Well, yeah, and I lived through only like few years in 80s.
D Again, you've seen some movies. You know what the fashion looked like.
K You know what, I think I'm gonna go with 70s. I think they were more fun. Like the fashion was fun. Yeah.
D Oh, 100%. 100%. Yeah, that would be [a] no brainer for me. I hate 80s fashion.
K Yeah, I agree. Yeah.
D Yeah, the 70s are just fun in every way. I mean, I like the music, I like the clothes, the vibe.
K Yes, I agree.
D Okay, next one. Here's another kind of silly one. Would you rather be a squirrel for a day or a pet cat for a week?
K Oh, pet cat for a week, are you kidding me? That's not even a...
D Especially if you're like my cat, right? - the life my cats lead.
K Yeah, pet cat. All you do is sleep, walk around, eat, get treats and get snuggles. Squirrel, you gotta actually do some work and look for nuts and stuff and hide them and dig them and fear for your life. No, thank you.
D Yeah, it's true. It's wild out there. You know, it could be, it could be anything out there.
K Yeah. No, it's no fun to be a squirrel. Hard work.
D Forget the work. Are you kidding? Oh, this one I know the answer to. So I'm not even going to ask you that. This is good one. Would you rather eat only red foods or eat only white foods?
K Oh, that's a good one. Only red or only white?
D Yeah, can you imagine that would be boring no matter how you put it, but...
K Yeah, I mean if we're looking at red food in terms of anything that's red not like everything would turn red, right?
D No, just only foods that are red.
K Are red? I'm gonna go with that
D Really?
K Because I mean yeah tomatoes, strawberries, apples, which are deceiving because they red on the outside, white on the inside, but I'll take it.
D Yeah, there's also, you know, white cheese and sour cream and cream cheese.
K Well, the cheese would be what I would miss. But I do like my red fruits and veggies and all that stuff. You know, red wine is pretty good too.
D Oh, yeah. Yeah, I think either way you look at that, that's pretty traumatic. If you could only eat one of those foods, right?
K I know.
D Oh my gosh.
K Do you have one more?
D Yes, wow, time is flying here.
K Well, that's what…you know what they say time flies when you're having fun.
D Yeah. Part of this is I'm trying to remember if we did these before. Some of these I recognize and some of these I'm like, I don't remember. Did we do: would you rather always know when someone is lying to you or never know when someone is lying to you?
K We haven't done that one. I'd rather know if they're lying to me.
D Oh, I would too.
K Yeah, you know what? I am okay with facing the harsh truth than living a sweet lie.
D That's the thing, like, at least you'd always know, right? But if you never know when someone is lying, you'd always be wondering.
K Right, right. So you can't trust anyone.
D No, I think you drive yourself crazy. Well, you know, you could probably drive yourself crazy either way. I never knew how many people were lying to me every day.
K I thought you liked me, but you lied to me. No, I'd rather hear the truth.
D Yeah, me too. Harsh reality. Sometimes you’ve just got to have it.
K Yep, that's true.
D All right, well, this was fun. This was just a short one as normal. Our coffee breaks are just about 15 minutes or so. And I blew a lot of that time talking about the sleep hack, but hopefully somebody found it helpful too. All right, so awesome as always. It's good seeing you. And until next time, here's to good coffee, good vibes, and great conversations. Cheers.
K Cheers.
