Colloquial English 3.5: Culture Idioms with Katie and Amanda

Katie gives a hint: "Very, very big Asian country." Amanda gets it instantly — Chinese whispers — and then admits she used to play the game in a circle at school. That's how this whole episode works. Katie describes ten colloquial expressions about culture without saying them, Amanda guesses, and the two of them argue gently about what each one really means. You hear the guessing, the near-misses and the moment the phrase finally lands.

What you'll hear in this episode

The topic is culture and cultural difference: what you do in one place and not another, how direct people are, and how much of your real situation you let other people see.

Amanda works out when in Rome from a clue about a European capital, then jokes "When in Barcelona..." The two of them use eating late as the example — arriving somewhere hungry at 6pm and finding nothing open.

The face expressions come next: put a brave face on things, lose face, save face, keep up appearances. Amanda mentions that in Japan not losing face really matters, and Katie adds that it's especially bad if you make your boss lose face. The best moment is the two of them building a picture of someone who's lost their job and hides it — going out at the same time each day, suit on, "And get on the metro, and then turn around and come back home." Katie: "Bit extreme isn't it?"

In the second half, Amanda cheerfully incriminates herself on get to the point: "I never get to the point." She adds, "I was really bad at summarising at school" — "I used to use...a thousand words instead of a hundred." And for culture vulture, she circles the answer from the picture rather than the phrase: "I'm thinking of a...the image of a bird..." — "...that preys on dead animals."

Quick facts

Episode	Colloquial 3.5 – Culture
Pack	Colloquial 3
Level	3
Length	16 minutes 39 seconds
Audio	Free to download
Workbook	Included in the €39 all-in-one pack

What you'll learn

Ten expressions, but more usefully, ten expressions heard in the wild forms people actually produce. Watch what happens with variation: the workbook lists to beat around the bush and to put a brave face on things, but in the conversation you'll hear "to beat about the bush" and "putting on a brave face". Both are normal. Learning the dictionary form is not enough if you can't recognise the version a real speaker reaches for.

You'll also get practice with a skill exams rarely test and conversation demands constantly: understanding a definition given badly, live. Katie doesn't produce neat glossary entries — she gestures at the meaning, gives a hint about a country or a capital, and lets Amanda close the gap. Following that process trains you to work out an unknown expression from context rather than stopping the conversation.

There's a genuine cultural point in there too. Katie suggests these aren't purely British habits — "most people aren't that direct", she says, and "nobody likes to look silly do they?" So the face and appearances expressions are tools you can turn on your own culture, not just descriptions of the English.

Two scripted Meaning and Pronunciation drills follow the conversations: you hear a single word — appearances, whispers, cards, bush — and rebuild the whole expression before repeating it.

Vocabulary from the workbook

When in Rome... – when you are in another country and culture, you should try to do things the way the people in that place do. Amanda gets this from the capital-city clue.
Chinese whispers – a situation where information is passed from person to person and becomes more and more confused / incorrect.
to save / lose face – to stop your image in front of other people from becoming worse / for your image in front of other people to become worse.
to keep up appearances – to hide any financial or personal problems so that other people think everything is the same for you as usual. This is the metro story.
to beat around the bush – to take a long time to say something, to be indirect, or not talk about what is important.
to put your cards on the table – to say what you really feel, think or are going to do.
a culture vulture – someone very interested in culture – perhaps too much.
a stiff upper lip – British people are said to have a stiff upper lip, it means to not show that you are sad and upset.

In the workbook

The workbook for this unit carries the full transcript of both conversations with Katie and Amanda, so you can go back to any moment you missed — including the pauses and the false guesses.

After that comes the glossary, with all twelve expressions rated 1 to 3 for how informal they are. That rating matters here: to keep up appearances, to get to the point, put your cards on the table and a culture vulture are marked 2 — best used in very informal situations with people you know well. Level 3 comes with the warning "Don't use this with your mother-in-law!!!"

Then two exercises. Practice Exercise 1 gives you a plain sentence to rewrite using one of the expressions — "He looked silly in front of the whole office" becomes He lost face. Practice Exercise 2 strips every vowel out of eight expressions and asks you to put them back, which is harder than it looks and very good for spelling. Full answers are provided.

The workbook is part of the Zapp! English all-in-one pack at €39, covering every episode.

Get the complete courseAll workbooks and audio — €39

Common questions

Is the audio scripted?

The conversations between Katie and Amanda are completely unscripted — Amanda genuinely doesn't know what's coming. The teaching sections that set up the guessing game and run the pronunciation drills are scripted, so the instructions stay clear.

Do I need the workbook to follow the episode?

No. The audio is free and works on its own. The workbook adds the transcript, the glossary with informality ratings, and the two written exercises with answers.

Which expressions are covered?

When in Rome, Chinese whispers, put a brave face on things, a stiff upper lip, lose face, save face, keep up appearances, get to the point, beat around the bush, put your cards on the table, come out with something and a culture vulture.

Why does the audio say "beat about the bush" when the workbook says "around"?

Both versions exist and both are used. It's a good example of why hearing real speech alongside a written list is worth the effort.

What level is this?

Level 3, from the Colloquial 3 pack. You'll get the most from it if you can already follow two native speakers talking at natural speed.

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