Learn More About Your Host Milena
Es la hora de la fiesta! It’s time to shake your booty! We are having a bit of fun in today’s episode. We are celebrating episode 100!! You will learn more about your host Milena, and more. You will also meet Weon Inteligente. Don’t be shy to dance. Enjoy :)
Links mentioned in this episode:
MeetUp – www.meetup.com
Transcription
Hola muchachos, you are listening to the English Made Simple show, this is episode 100, numero cien – es la hora de la fiesta! Time to party!
Hey, hey, what’s up happy people? I’ve changed the introduction a bit, did you notice? Why did you do that?
Because today’s a episode is a special one. Today’s a special episode and I wanted to spice things up. I included a nice dance-y tune! Did you like it? I hope you did! I will play it again at the end of the show, so you can get up and dance for..like… 30 seconds haha.
That particular podcast jingle that music that you heard, that music was composed by a very talented guy from Spain, and the the original jingle or music intro that I use with every episode was composed by a guy from Venezuela. Another talented musician.
Cool, now you know the secret about that music. Awesome, now you know it!
So, I wanted something dancey, something to shake your booty, I wanted something with Latino feel to it. It had to have this Latin rhythm.
Now, I should introduce myself before I forget. I easily forget things!
So, welcome to the English Made Simple show, my name is Milena from www.www.englishmadesimple.net. Englishmadesimple.net.
And who am I? Who is Milena? And Why English Made Simple?
So many questions yet so little time.
I think it’s time I reveal a little bit about me so you can get to know me a little bit. How about that?
If you’ve been listening to the EMS show since the first episode, which was released in March 2016, I think the very first episode was aired on 18th March… I think… around that time anyway…. So if you’ve been listening for a year then you must have some idea about who I am.
Who is Milena?
By the way, I don’t dare listen to that first episode, I cringe every time I listen to it. I am like “oooh no do I sound like that! That’s my voice. O M G, I sound like a scared little girl.”
Has anyone tried recording their voice and playing it back? What did you think of your voice? How did it sound?
Anyway, it’s normal to feel like this, it’s normal not to like the sound of your own voice. Everyone goes through this.
But I did sound like a scared little girl. Haha Did you know that it took me 2 months to release that first episode. I recorded it in January 2016 and I released it in March that same year. It took me 2 months! Thanks to my husband who encouraged me to launch it. Finally!
I should be more grateful to him, but naaaah. I am still going to make fun of him.
He actually said to me: Milena, that episode was really great, you really sounded great on mute. He means to say: Mute! En silencio! You sound great when you are silent.
What?? Whatta?
Haha on mute? This is a phrase and it means without any sound. If you have a remote control at home, you know the thing that you use to change the channel, and you want to quickly lower the volume you simply push the Mute button.
Mute button.
And my husband was joking obviously, when he said that, well, I hope he was joking!
Anyway!
If you are new to today’s show, then welcome amigos, you have a lot of episodes to catch-up on.
Enjoy :)
So today, in today’s episode I would like to share something about myself that not many people know about, I will also share some of my experiences with learning English and Spanish.
Then I want you to think about how you would describe yourselves. How would you talk about yourselves?
I covered something similar in episode #24, episode about answering a Job Interview question: Tell me about yourself.
That was back in episode #24, long time ago now!
And then we will finish off with some quick random questions at the end of the show, presented by my asistente weon, Mr Weon himself.
It’s gonna be fun! Let’s begin!
Here is a quick timeline of my life:
Born and raised in Serbia, not Siberia, some people do confuse the two countries. Actually I was born in the former Yugoslavia, back in 1981. The country doesn’t exist anymore. As some of you may know, there was a war there in the early 90’s that split Yugoslavia into 5 different countries, like: Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro.
By the way, did you know Melania Trump is from Slovenia? A-ha true that. Both of us come from the former Yugoslavia. Interesting. She is married to a billionaire, and I am married to a poor little Chileno.
My family and I moved to New Zealand in 1995 when I was 14 years old.
I lived in Auckland New Zealand for 12 years then I moved to Melbourne. My new home. New Zealand is where I went to high school, I also studied in Auckland, and I landed my first job with an insurance company in their Information Technology department. I am a bit of a nerd what can I say.
Somebody asked me before whether it was difficult for me to learn English.
Well, I started learning English at the age of 10, I remember it was a compulsory subject in the primary school – this was back in Serbia, we also had to learn Russian, I remember. But for some reason I was always interested in learning English, maybe because I grew up watching Hollywood movies and because I was listening to the music in English.
The hardest thing for me was when we arrived in New Zealand. We were used to listening to the accent from the United States, we never knew about the kiwi accent before we arrived in NZ. We never expected it to be so different.
It took us about 3 or 6 months to start to understand the kiwi accent. Kiwi accent is the accent from New Zealand by the way. For those of you who don’t know.
On the other hand, the Australian accent is another story. It is not the same as New Zealand accent. There are just so many different accents that exist in English.
Even though we spent such a long time in New Zealand and Australia, I never wanted to give up my accent, I am keeping it. It is who I am. And it’s a great conversation starter!
So as most of you know, I spent some time in Santiago de Chile. Santiago is a beautiful city, I miss it.
It was there where I found my passion for teaching English. I’ve decided to create this podcast to keep in touch with my students from Chile.
We say Chiley in English not Chile!
It started off with 20 listeners listening to the show, including my family, and then 6 months later it grew to about 10,000 and it keeps growing every day. I get listeners from all around the world, from every corner of the world. It’s really amazing. It’s really cool!
In fact, I am surprised people are listening to my gibberish and my silly jokes haha
So I didn’t speak any Spanish before I arrived in Chile, I wasn’t able to have a conversation with someone in Spanish. I was too scared to even order a cup of coffee. But I persevered. I wouldn’t say I am super fluent in Spanish, but I can hold a conversation…. and I can understand telenovelas without subtitles. You know, easy peasy.
Ok and now I am going to share something about me that not everybody knows. Something really personal about me.
Very quickly, here we go!
I am a coffee and wine addict. I love all sorts of animals including the not so cuddly ones, like sharks and crocodiles, and my husband. They all look fun.]
I am a certified Aerobics Instructor, I used to teach aerobics in the gym, and I also competed in Body Building in NZ this was back in 2003. Long time ago.
I grew up listening to bands like Metallica, Megadeth, Iron Maiden, Sepultura or Sepultura how they say in English, and one of the best concerts that I went to was the Foo Fighters concert. Back in high school, I learnt to play guitar, acoustic and electric guitar. I also learnt to play drums.
I don’t know how to sing but I think that I can sing. It’s really embarrassing. I do embarrass myself often!
I used to be a member of a heavy metal band called Matalization, and now that I think of it, this name is a bit ridiculous, maybe that’s why it never worked out.
I am the youngest in my family. I have a twin sister, she is 10 minutes older than me and one older brother who is 4 years older than me. I am the youngest!
And that’s about it. If you would like to learn more about me, you can check out the About page on the English Made Simple website. I’ve just recently updated it! Check it out!
And while you are there, you will also learn about Weon Inteligente. He is the international man of mystery and he represents any dictionary out there. Weon is a slang word, slang from Chile and it means something like buddy, amigo. It probably means something else which is a little bit let’s just say, not nice.
I remember, every second word in Chile is weon, that’s what I used to hear everywhere. Obviously, I am exaggerating.
So that’s me in a nutshell.
Before we get on to the Six Random Questions for Milena – what I want you to do is, I want you to think about yourselves. How would you describe your English learning journey?
You could, share your story with the English Made Simple community or if you don’t feel comfortable sharing it this way, then just email me at hello@www.englishmadesimple.net or send me a message via website, www.englishmadesimple.net
By the way, being able to talk about yourself is a great practice for you amigos y amigas who are preparing for English exams, or even for those who are preparing for job interviews.
You have to be able to talk about yourselves.
Cool bananas!
And now I’d like to ask my asistente aweonao, Mr Aweonator to ask me some random questions.
Mr Weon Inteligente makes an appearance for the very first time.
For those who don’t speak Spanish, let’s just call this guy my assistant. My assistant Weon, he is very judgemental and is quite nerdy, he is a perfectionist.
HELLO CREATURES. G’DAY EVERYBODY.
FIRST QUESTION FOR MS MILENA
Weon: What’s your favourite food?
Milena: My favourite food is Thai. Thai food. Food from Thailand.
HM…NOT HEALTHY. NEXT QUESTION.
How many languages do you speak?
Milena: I speak 3 languages fluently and 2 languages not so fluently
IT’S NOT IMPRESSIVE. NEXT QUESTION:
If you had any special superpowers what would they be?
Milena: Interesting question…if I had any superpowers what would they be? Hmmm.. let me think one second, I would like to be able to make people laugh. And to be able to make endless supplies of Nutella with superpowers.
Oh Dear, CHILDISH, BORING. NEXT QUESTION.
What are your weaknesses?
Milena: I have many weaknesses, but the ones that stand out the most are Nutella, I can’t say NO to Nutella, nice red wine, I can’t say NO to wine and coffee, I am a coffee addict!
I THOUGHT THERE WERE MORE. NEXT QUESTION.
How would your friends describe you?
Milena: Hmmm, my friends would describe me as someone who is cheeky, honest and rebellious.
SERIOUSLY? OK, WHATEVER. NEXT RANDOM QUESTION
Is there any singer you like but are too embarrassed to admit?
Milena: Hmm, I have a couple of artists that I like that I am too embarrassed to admit. The first one being Shakira. I like Shakira, I am too embarrassed to admit that I like her. I only like 1 song from Justin Bieber and it is called Sorry. The song is called Sorry, Yes I know, sorry about that.
SHAMEFUL. AND FINALLY, Oh thank God. THE LAST QUESTION:
Do you have any tips that you could share with the listeners of the show on how to improve their English skills?
Milena: Hmmm… any tips for the listeners? I know that the Speaking part is the main problem for most English learners, and this is due to the fact that it’s hard to find someone you can practise with. Especially if you are living in a non-English speaking country.
However this shouldn’t really stop anyone from learning English. Luckily we live in exciting times when we can learn anything we want online, we can learn anything on the Internet, from the comfort of our own home.
Here are a couple of tips that I recommend for the listeners of English Made Simple:
You can go to www.meetup.com to find a meetup near you. By attending the meetups you can find some native speakers, you can practise your English with those native speakers.
The next tip that I’d like to share with you is that, you can listen to podcasts in English, such as the English Made Simple Show.
Podcasts allow you to learn English every day no matter what you happen to be doing. You could be driving and listening to English, or you could be washing the dishes. It’s brilliant.
I binge on podcasts, I have some of my favourite shows that I listen to every day. And I always learn something new every day. It’s really cool, I highly recommend it!
HA! GREAT QUESTION…BUT AVERAGE ANSWER.
Thank you for your time Ms Milena and for wasting my precious time. Leave me alone please.
Ok, thanks aweonao. Go back to your hole.
And thank you amigos for joining me in celebrating episode 100, numero cien. Wow.
Hope you enjoyed today’s show, you’ve been jamming with Milena from English Made Simple, now if you’ll excuse me, it’s time to get up and dance. I’ll catch ya next time, hasta la proxima.