Zapp! English Vocabulary 3.5: Talking About Culture

Ask a British person about the stereotype of a British person and you get an honest answer. Niall describes a Briton "lying in the gutter in a pair of shorts" on a Spanish island, admits "some of it is true", then explains how learning please and thank you in the local language gets you treated better than "a Brit that's just out to get drunk, cause a fight…have a kebab, go home". That's the raw material for this unit: fifteen words for talking about culture, tested on real opinions.

What you'll hear in this episode

Katie puts the same kind of question to two speakers, and the contrast is the lesson. Niall answers at length. Asked whether immigrants find it hard to adapt, he argues both sides and lands on the view that they "shouldn't have to change", because incoming culture makes the whole country better. Asked for a British ceremony, he picks university graduation — the gowns you have to hire, the little scroll, the hat in the air — and calls it "a lot more restrained hence it's a lot more British" than the American version. For a tradition, he goes straight to Sunday dinner: something the British have always done, and "it's basically done without fail". He also admires the customs in Greece and Thailand where young people spend a year in the army or training as a Buddhist monk, because it "puts, a lot more structure into a young person's life".

Kim answers briefly and carefully. On confrontation: British people are quite reserved, so they'll probably "avoid confrontation", apart from a small minority who actively seek it. On ethnicity: not terribly important personally, but it would be if she were from an ethnic minority in the UK. On greetings, one of the speakers admits to now "going straight in for a kiss" — left cheek first — and to never having "been in a bowing situation". Between the two answers you hear the same language used at two very different speeds.

Quick facts

Episode	3.5
Pack	Vocabulary and Pronunciation 3
Level	3
Duration	19 minutes 25 seconds
New words taught	15
Conversation speakers	Katie with Niall, and Katie with Kim

What you'll learn

The teaching sections separate pairs of words that learners tend to merge. A custom and a tradition are close enough to swap, we say so plainly — a tradition just takes longer to create. But a stranger and a foreigner are not the same: "A foreigner isn't a stranger if you know them." Nor is a foreigner an immigrant: a foreigner might only be in a country for a holiday, while an immigrant has moved their life.

The pronunciation work targets the most common sound in English, the weak /ə/. You'll hear why custom has stress on the first syllable and a weak second one, and how a stranger and a foreigner both end in that same unstressed /ə/. There's syllable counting for ceremony (four) and immigrant (three, ending /ənt/), and the /ʃən/ ending of tradition.

The best detail is connected speech: when shake and hands come together, the /h/ disappears, so the phrase sounds like /ʃeɪkænz/. Once you've heard that, you'll start noticing where else English drops sounds between words. Every word is repeated after a beep, so you say it rather than just recognise it.

Vocabulary from this unit

to adapt — to change the way you do things so that you can deal with a new and different situation; the word Katie uses in her opening question about immigrants.
an immigrant — a person who comes to live in a country from another country.
a ceremony — something people in a culture do that has special words or acts; Niall's example is a graduation.
a tradition — something that has always happened in a culture, an old belief or act; his example is Sunday dinner.
a custom — the usual way of doing something.
a stranger — someone you do not know.
a foreigner — a person from another country.
a stereotype — an idea people have about how another group of people are or behave, even though they may not have met someone from this group.
to integrate — to become a member of a group and be accepted.
to confront — to deal with something directly, rather than avoiding it or being indirect.
cuisine — a particular way of cooking food in a country or area of a country; Indian food wins here.
to shake hands, to hug, to bow — the three greetings compared in the second conversation.
ethnicity — the cultural group and/or race someone belongs to.

In the workbook

The accompanying workbook prints all the questions Katie asks, so you can answer them yourself before you hear Niall or Kim, and the full transcripts of both conversations for when a fast answer runs away from you. The glossary gives all fifteen words with phonetic transcriptions and short definitions.

Then three practice sections. Practice 1 is a gap-fill built around a business trip to China — expecting everyone to bow, being treated as a foreigner, remembering not to confront people, and the regional cuisines. Practice 2 makes you choose between the words the audio deliberately kept apart: custom, tradition or ceremony; stranger or foreigner; adapt or integrate. Practice 3 is a pronunciation task — five pairs of words where you decide whether the underlined sounds match, including to integrate against a stereotype and an immigrant against cuisine. Answers are all included.

This workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack, which covers every episode across every level for €39.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations with Niall and Kim are unscripted — you can hear the false starts and the self-corrections. The teaching sections that set up the tasks and give the answers are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

What level do I need?

This is Level 3 in the Vocabulary and Pronunciation series. If you can follow a native speaker arguing with himself about immigration policy, you're in the right place.

Do I need the workbook to use the audio?

No. The audio is free and works on its own. The workbook adds the transcripts, the glossary with phonetics and the three practice sections.

What's the pronunciation focus here?

The weak /ə/ sound, word stress and syllable count, plus the /h/ that disappears in shake hands.

How long is it?

19 minutes 25 seconds, including all the repetition pauses.

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