Speaker 1: What is this? Happy Holidays, Dwight. But, do not open it until Christmas. You're so pathetic. How long did this take you?

Speaker 2: Three hours?

Speaker 1: Five minutes, actually. I am a black belt in gift wrapping.

Speaker 2: Yeah, no such thing. They don't give out black belts for things that are stupid. Well, I hope it was worth it. Because I'm going to take it apart in about five minutes. I think it'll take you a little bit longer than that. Really? If I can skin a mule deer in less than ten minutes, I ought to be able to cut my... Oh, hello. Sorry, I didn't see you there.

Speaker 3: I forget these cameras are always on. Fact. The Learning Show TV series is the best channel on YouTube to learn English. Alright, guys. I'm just kidding. I am imitating what it would be like to be a character on the popular comedy series, The Office.

Speaker 4: So, this is the office. This is the office. This is the office. The Office.

Speaker 5: So...

Speaker 4: That's better, I guess. So... Actually, The Office has been having a bit of a revival because it's now available on Netflix in many countries. So, you should definitely check it out. It is unique because it's shot as a mockumentary. Now, mockumentary is done in a style that seems similar to a documentary. Like, there's hidden cameras everywhere. But, in fact, it's actually done for comedy, usually. As you saw in the preview, the employees at Dunder Mifflin love pulling pranks on each other. So, we're going to look at a couple of the many pranks that they show in this office that are absolutely hilarious. And I absolutely love this show. I'm so happy that it's become popular again. I'm actually watching it myself. And I'm really looking forward to teach you with it. But before we get started, I want to let you know that if you are new here, every single week we make new lessons just like this one to help you understand fast speaking natives without getting lost, without missing the jokes, and without subtitles. So, hit that subscribe button and the bell down below and that way you can join our community and you won't miss a single new lesson. So, let's learn with one of my favorite shows, The Office.

Speaker 6: Yes. Sure. I'll give him a message when he gets up. Gets back.

Speaker 7: Michael had chicken pot pie for lunch. Actually, let me rephrase that. Michael ate an entire family-sized chicken pot pie for lunch and then he promptly fell asleep. So, we're all trying to be very quiet so as to not wake him up before 5pm, which actually should be in about...

Speaker 2: You're so pathetic. How long did this take you? Three hours?

Speaker 4: If you think of a person or animal as pathetic, you mean that they are sad, weak, or helpless, and they usually make you feel sorry for them. For example, the team looked pathetic after they lost the match. Check out this example. Come on, coward.

Speaker 8: Where are you? Where?

Speaker 2: On the desk of Andrew Bernard.

Speaker 1: Note. Pathetic. I am a black belt in gift wrapping.

Speaker 4: When someone receives a black belt, it means that they achieved a high level or standard in a particular martial art. For example, Sarah received a black belt in karate.

Speaker 7: As a black belt,

Speaker 2: he mastered discipline.

Speaker 4: Yeah, no such thing. Dwight responds that there is no such thing as a black belt in gift wrapping. This expression means that that thing does not exist. Example. Her older sister told her that there's no such thing as Santa Claus, but she didn't believe her.

Speaker 2: Well, I hope it was worth it, because I'm going to take it apart in about five minutes. Here we have a

Speaker 4: nice example of reduction, which is quite common in casual speech. Instead of saying because, he drops the B and reduces it to cuz, and links it to I'm. Cuz I'm. He then also uses connected speech when he says gonna, which is the shortened form of going to. If you take something apart, you break it into its separate parts. Example. When I was a kid, I loved taking apart all sorts of devices. However, I never knew how to put them back together. To skin, or skinning, is the act of removing the skin of an animal, either for cooking and eating, or to harvest the skin for making fur or leather clothing. An example sentence would be the hunter skinned the deer they had killed.

Speaker 9: What?

Speaker 5: He's not available right now.

Speaker 4: Let's take a closer look at how Erin pronounces this sentence. Instead of saying not available, she pronounces the T with a flap T, or duh, and links it to the A in available. Not available. Remember, if a T is between two vowels, whether within a word or between two words, it will be pronounced as a flap T. Sure.

Speaker 6: I'll give him a message when he gets back.

Speaker 4: In this scene, Erin forgets the lie for a moment and gives the real reason why Michael is not available. Michael is sleeping, so she says I'll give him a message when he gets up, meaning when he wakes up from sleeping. An example would be, I'll ask him to take out the trash when he gets up from his nap. She then very quickly corrects herself, gets back, meaning when he returns to the office. For example, I'll pass on the message when he gets back from his lunch break. Get up and get back are both phrasal verbs. If you'd like to learn more about phrasal verbs for daily life, I recommend you check out this lesson later. The main purpose of rephrasing your words is to clarify what you mean, so the listener has a better understanding. To do this, you can also use the phrase just to be clear. Check out this example from Friends.

Speaker 10: Joey, why did you set me up with a stranger?

Speaker 11: Because I forgot about our date. I'm so sorry. I'm sorry too. And just to be clear, I didn't hit his mother with a car.

Speaker 4: So you may not know that paraphrasing is actually a really essential part to attain fluency in a language. Now, basically what this means is that you are able to say the same thing in various ways. Now, one of the important ingredients of being able to paraphrase well is having a lot of different vocabulary that natives use in everyday situations. So I have a super fun way for you to do this and that is with our Fluent with Friends course. Now, in this course, you are going to finally understand fast speaking natives. You'll learn all the elements of connected speech, you'll learn the vocabulary and expressions that we natives use in our everyday lives, and you'll get to laugh along with every single joke. Alright? So why don't you give it a try right now? It's free with our three-part masterclass. And you can sign up by clicking up here or down in the description below now. So, Jim wants everyone to know that Michael had eaten an entire pie that is big enough to feed a family. We commonly create compound words with size. For example, a child-sized life vest, a fun-sized candy bar. If you do something promptly, you do it tiredly, do it lazily, do it quickly. ... For example, we'll have to leave fairly promptly if we want to catch the bus.

Speaker 2: Normally I don't condone leaving early, but I have an appointment with the horse doctor. How that horse became a doctor, I don't know. ...

Speaker 4: For example, I will never condone disrespect on any level.

Speaker 12: Dunder Mifflin wants to make it clear that Dunder Mifflin does not discriminate, nor does it condone unhealthy dieting habits or extreme weight loss strategies as was clearly stated in...

Speaker 2: How that horse became a doctor, I don't know.

Speaker 4: It's common to refer to a doctor according to what they specialize in. For example, we can also call a podiatrist a foot doctor, or we can call an optometrist an eye doctor. So a horse doctor, or a horse veterinarian, is a doctor who specializes in taking care of horses. Dwight's joke is funny because of the play on words. It sounds as though the doctor actually is a horse.

Speaker 13: Like clockwork.

Speaker 4: We use the expression, like clockwork, when something happens or works correctly, with no problems or delays. For example, since the recent improvements to the service, the buses are running like clockwork. It's funny because Dwight is literally adjusting the time on the clock.

Speaker 14: See you all tamale.

Speaker 4: When Michael greets everyone and says, see you all tamale, it is his attempt at being humorous and a play on words since it sounds quite similar to see you all tomorrow. In case you don't already know, a tamale is a Mexican dish made of ground beef mixed with crushed corn and seasonings, wrapped in corn husks and steamed. Hey, if you love The Office as much as I do and you want more lessons with it, then let us know by hitting that like button and also comment below and let us know if there's any particular scenes that you would like us to do. Maybe we'll do it. So, I look forward to seeing what you guys have to say.

Speaker 2: Smoking is going to save lives.

Speaker 15: Does anyone smell anything smoky? Did you bring your jerky in again?

Speaker 16: Oh my god. Oh my god.

Speaker 11: Fire. Oh, fire. Oh my goodness. What's the procedure? What do we do, people? The phones are dead.

Speaker 2: Last week I gave a fire safety talk.

Speaker 4: Fire safety is the set of practices intended to reduce the destruction caused by fire. An example would be, our company will be having a fire safety workshop this week.

Speaker 8: Well, you know, if Joey and I play with matches, we can get you up to an even hundred.

Speaker 4: Fire safety is not a joke, son.

Speaker 17: And nobody paid any attention.

Speaker 4: If you pay attention to someone, you watch them, listen to them, or take notice of them. If you pay no attention to someone, you behave as if you are not aware of them or as if they are not important. So, when Dwight says that nobody paid him any attention, he means that nobody listened to him. For example, he didn't pay attention to the lesson, and as a result, he failed the test.

Speaker 11: Now, Mr. Kaplan Sr. likes his coffee strong, so you want to use two bags instead of one. Now, pay attention, because this part's tricky.

Speaker 2: But experience is the best teacher.

Speaker 4: Experience is the best teacher is an idiom which means that you will learn more from things that happen to you in real life than you will from hearing about or studying things that happen to other people. And this is very true for learning English too, right? You can't get fluent in the language if you're just studying from a textbook or even just watching videos here on YouTube. You have to actually get out there and use the language in real life experiences with other people. So, that's exactly why we created our Real Life English app. Now, this is the only place where anytime, anywhere, you can simply press a button and we'll instantly connect you to another English speaker in another part of the world for a fun and dynamic conversation. So, download it now. It's free. You can just click the link in the description to find that.

Speaker 18: Oh, I gotta tell you. You smell so smoky. I gotta get up.

Speaker 4: Someone's eye makeup might be smoky by the application of dark eyeshadow on the eyelids and dark eyeliner that is blended along the upper and lower lash lines.

Speaker 19: For today's Monday makeup lesson, I'm gonna show you how to create a classic smoky eye.

Speaker 4: When we say someone has a smoky voice, it generally means that that person sounds like they smoke a lot. In other words, their voice is low and often husky. For example, the singer has a very smoky voice.

Speaker 17: You're the only one I ever was. I only wanna make it good.

Speaker 4: Smoky can also describe a flavor profile, in which case it means tasting like smoke.

Speaker 18: Well, I suppose that Chandler will have the smoked duck.

Speaker 8: I suppose that Monica will have the manipulative shrew.

Speaker 4: A quick grammar point to improve your writing is that when the vowel suffix Y is attached to a word ending in silent E to form an adjective, it sometimes replaces the E. Smoke. Smoky. Here are some other common examples. Ice. Icy. Scare. Scary. Spice. Spicy. However, this isn't always the case, as there is no predictable pattern to know when to omit or keep the silent E when adding the suffix Y. So, we have to learn which is the correct or more common spelling.

Speaker 15: Did you bring your jerky in again?

Speaker 4: We use the word jerky to refer to lean, trimmed meat cut into strips and dehydrated to prevent it from spoiling. This is a common snack in the USA, and you can find beef, turkey, and even elk or deer jerky in most stores.

Speaker 12: Just a heads up, we're gonna need to do a full restock of the jerky.

Speaker 4: Which of these also means jerky? Quick and sudden movements. Slow movements. Delayed movements.

Speaker 11: Fire. Oh, fire. Oh my goodness. What's the procedure?

Speaker 4: We use the word procedure to mean a set of actions that is the official or accepted way of doing something. For example, When we talk about a landline and we say that the phone is dead or the phone dies, it means that it is no longer working or has become disconnected. For example, However, when we talk about a smartphone or cell phone, we can also mean that the battery power has run out.

Speaker 11: No, we don't know that. The smoke could be coming through an air duct. Oh my God. Okay, it's happening. Everybody stay calm. What's the procedure, everyone? Everybody just f***ing calm down. Touch the handle. If it's hot, there could be a fire in the hallway.

Speaker 20: What does warm mean? Oh my gosh. Not a viable option.

Speaker 11: What next? No option. Jeez. Okay, settle down, everyone. Look at my purse. Leave it, woman. Get out of the way. Go, go, go. No, things can be replaced, Phyllis. People, human lives, however, can... This has been a test of our emergency preparedness. There is no fire. It was only a simulation. What? This was merely a training exercise. No, we don't know that. The smoke could be coming through an air duct. Everybody just f***ing calm down. Not a viable option. What next?

Speaker 20: Now, I can't pay for your college. But, you don't have to go to class to be in class. Online courses are a viable option. Okay, settle down, everyone.

Speaker 4: No, I... What other phrasal verb that we've seen means the same as settle down? Calm down, get up, take a part. If you tell someone to settle down, you want them to become calm and less excited or panicked. For example, it always takes the class a while to settle down at the start of the lesson. Earlier, we learned one of the rules of the flap T. Let's look at another. A flap T will often occur between a vowel and a dark L. This means an L that comes at the end of a syllable, such as in bottle, kettle, and settle.

Speaker 11: Things can be replaced, Phyllis.

Speaker 4: To replace means to take the place of something, or to put something or someone in the place of something or someone else. For example, the factory replaced most of its workers with machines.

Speaker 21: Whoa, whoa, whoa. You broke Joey's chair? Yeah, I thought I broke Joey's chair. That's why I replaced it with mine. Oh. There is no fire. It was only a simulation.

Speaker 4: We use the word simulation to mean a model of real activity, problems, or events that can be used to teach someone how to do something. For example, astronauts are trained using space flight simulation.

Speaker 11: Not real. This was merely a training exercise.

Speaker 4: We use the adverb merely to mean only and nothing more. For example, she doesn't want to leave the party. She merely said that she was tired.

Speaker 8: Being with her has been like being on a vacation. And what may be perceived as high maintenance is merely attention to detail.

Speaker 1: Happy holidays, Dwight. But do not open it until Christmas.

Speaker 2: You're so pathetic. How long did this take you, three hours?

Speaker 1: Five minutes, actually. I am a black belt in gift wrapping.

Speaker 2: Yeah, no such thing. They don't give out black belts for things that are stupid. Well, I hope it was worth it, because I'm going to take it apart in about five minutes.

Speaker 4: The opposite of taking something apart is break up, assemble, put together.

Speaker 17: What do you need from me?

Speaker 2: Normally I don't condone leaving early, but I have an appointment with the horse doctor. How that horse became a doctor, I don't know. Ha ha ha. No, I'm kidding. Today, smoking is going to save lives. Does anyone smell anything smoky?

Speaker 15: Did you bring your jerky in again?

Speaker 16: Oh my god. Oh my god. Fire.

Speaker 11: Oh, fire. Oh my goodness. What's the procedure? What do we do, people? The bones are dead, Dwight.

Speaker 4: If you're a fan of The Office, then we have another lesson that you can continue learning with it. So let's check out a clip. Hey, come on. Get out. Fuck.

Speaker 22: Did I want to harm Michael? The one man I've been hired to protect? No, I did not. Are you okay? Yes. Are you sure you're alright?

Speaker 20: Yep. Yep.

Speaker 22: Thank you.