 Hi, everyone, and welcome to a real conversation between two native English speakers. I'm Liz Wade, and with me as always is Adam Navas in bright orange. Hi, Adam. Hello, Liz. Adam, this is a lot brighter than you normally go. It is. I'm very, I'm, you know, in my old age, I'm getting very adventurous in my clothing dresses. That's great. I hope that you get adventurous and check out that join button below this video. If you click on it, you can find out more about becoming a member of Spotlight English, supporting our work, and also getting extras along the way, including PDF scripts, access to exclusive videos, and what I think is the coolest, your name in every video that we make. Be sure, while you're down there, to hit the like button for this video and to subscribe so that you never miss any conversations or videos from Spotlight English. If you have not, well, I didn't even tell you the program that we're discussing today, did I? This program is one of the ones that gives me a little bit of the creeps it's called the truth in urban legends. And so, if you have not checked out that video or listened to that program yet, check it out on our website at www.SpotlightEnglish.com. You can watch it on YouTube with a music version and a classic style or a no music version, also an advanced version. So whatever really fits for your level of English, that's what you can find there. If you're listening to this as a podcast, you can find that program in the Spotlight English podcast. Just search for that wherever you like to listen to podcasts. And so, I hope you listen to that, and then I hope you come back here and join us in this conversation for this little bit creepy program. Yeah. Yeah. This program talks about urban legends, which are stories that seem like they could be real, but they can't be proved to be real. And usually, they tell us a sort of message either to be careful about something, or they tell what a community is scared of, or they can just have like a lesson for you to learn. Be nice to people or things like that. So the way that it makes me think it's a little bit of a creepy program is sometimes these stories are kind of creepy, right? So we have something that covers a broad range of stories. We just call them ghost stories or spooky stories or scary stories. So there's an overlap between urban legends and scary stories. I think the difference about, you can tell a scary story with the intent, nobody really thinks it's real. An urban legend, some people, you could be like, is this a real story? Is it not a real story? Did it really happen? Yeah. Did it not really happen? Did it really happen? But then through the various times it's been told, it's been changed, and it feels, I don't know, different, right? I think that's a good distinction, that you know that a spooky story isn't real. But an urban legend, it sounds like it could be real. And I think that another important thing that makes it an urban legend is that the person who's telling it actually has no first-hand experience. If I tell you, I met this person and I saw this thing and we did this together, that's different than saying, my friend said she heard from her friend that this happened. Yeah. Right? Yeah. I think that's another important distinction. Right, because you're not giving like a testimony, you're not testifying to the fact that this happened. You're saying, ooh. But there's something still about the story that hooks your heart and makes you want to tell it, right? Either it's like you said, it gets at some of your fears or a community's fear, or even like, it doesn't feel, I mean, the program talks about kind of an inspiring story as well. But I always think of urban legends as more of those scary ones. I don't know. Right. And what I also noticed from this program, and after I thought about it a little bit, is that urban legends actually aren't always long stories, right? They don't always have like a beginning and a middle and an end. Sometimes they're even just as short as the sentences in the beginning of this program. Yeah. Like if you call, and this is like a terrible thing to do because 999 is the emergency number in the UK. If you call 999 and then hang up, then your phone will charge. That's an urban legend. But you should not do that because that actually is the emergency line and you should not do that, the emergency line. Or that there's a small amount of drugs on every American dollar bill. Those are urban legends. Like, sure. I mean, there might be some amount of drugs on some bills. But like, I mean, yeah, so it could be true, but it's not actually like true. Yeah. And how would you even prove that? Yeah. Right. Exactly. So, Adam, this is another thing that I think is fun. What is your favorite urban legend? Do you have an urban legend that you don't? I will tell you, it will take about a minute to tell you. But this is one that I remember when I was a kid. Yeah. Tell it like it's over. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Well, no. I heard it from my brother who heard it from his older, you know, a guy at high school. His older sister was driving along one day. And she was, it was dark, of course, it was nighttime. She was lost. This is before there were cell phones and directions. Maybe her cell phone had died. I don't, I don't know those details. Yeah. So, but then a big semi-truck came up behind her and actually nudged her like they were driving along repeatedly bumping into her and she just couldn't get away. Oh my goodness, I think I know this one and I'm getting so nervous. He bumped into her and she started to swerve and he bumped into her again. And eventually at the last minute she took a different road and the truck kept going. Well, it turns out. Oh my gosh. That the truck, because it was so high, could see down into her back seat where there was someone hiding with a knife. And so she had, she got to her place and got out and he tried to chase her, but she got away I think. Yeah. Oh my goodness. So the moral of this story is like if someone's behaving erratically on the road, they may be trying to warn you of something dangerous. Right. Yeah. I have heard that one before. Oh, that's creepy. See, this is why these stories are so creepy. I thought that as you were telling this, that it might be another story that you were going to say like there is an urban legend that if you are driving along on the road and you don't have or you see someone without their headlights. Oh yeah. Okay. So you should have your headlights on in the dark, right? So that other people can see your vehicle whether you can see where you're going. Right. Exactly. Yes. So I'm going to tell this terribly, but okay, so you should have your headlights on and if you see someone without headlights, you can flash your headlights to remind them that their headlights are not on. This is normal because sometimes as the sun goes down, you don't automatically tell them. Right. You know, I've forgotten to turn my headlights on once or twice and you know someone flashes their lights at me and I say, oh, you know, okay, thank you. I turn them on. But there is sometimes that those people driving around in the dark cars are actually gang members. Part of a gang. Yes. Yep. And if you flash your lights at them, then they have to attack you. Yeah. Kill you. They have to like, yeah. Right. Because it's part of a gang initiation. Yeah. To be part of the gang. To prove that they're part of the gang. So, and of course, that is an urban legend. No, it happened to a cousin of a friend of mine. It was real. Yeah. Exactly. Yeah. You know, I know a person who knows a person who had that happen to them. Yeah. I'm going to tell you the worst urban legend. Okay. This might have even made it into some kind of movie, I think. Because a lot of these horror movies, which I know I'm not a fan of, I don't think you are either. Oh, I'm not either. I cannot watch horror movies. It's like somebody went to a party and they had some drinks and they woke up the next day in a bathtub full of ice. Yes. With a phone in their hand, someone had taken their kidneys to sell on the black market. Yeah. And they said, you better call the hospital. Or even like, you mean, it doesn't even have to be at a party, right? Maybe you met a stranger. No, it happened at a party. It did. Well, I heard it happened like when you met a stranger. Yeah. And you can meet strangers anywhere. The grocery store. Yes. Walking down the street. Well, you should always be wary of strangers. So here at Spotlight, we like to have a very positive attitude towards these things. And I feel like this, this whole urban legend thing, it's very timely, right? Like how do you tell whether information is good, whether someone is trustworthy? Yes. And I feel like urban legends have made their way into just public conversation about COVID or about politics or about another country. That's very true. I know someone who knows someone who got the vaccine and then they died. Or I know someone who knows someone who like got COVID and then, I don't know, that's a terrible thing. I know. But what we're saying is, let's take a beat and let's, whenever you hear a story, how do we make sure it's not an urban legend? Probably just by saying, do I know where the source is coming from? Yes. Does this make me feel afraid? What is real? What is, what feels real? Because this is a question, my wife is a therapist. And when we're talking to our children, she always says, what is real and what feels real? Right. Because they are not always the same thing. They are not always the same thing. So if you can, if you can parse, that's a big English word that just means kind of separate what is real from what feels real. Right. It's having a healthy sense of skepticism. So not immediately believing everything that you hear or see. Right. So if you say, my brother had a friend and his friend said that his sister was driving the car, asking questions, right? Like who was this? What was her name? Where was she going? And remembering that even my memory of stories that did happen to me, my memory is not perfect. So this is my memory, to your memory, to the another person's memory. Yeah. So Liz, do we want people to comment with their urban legends? I think you could say, okay, because part of the point of this program, right, is not just to tell creepy stories. Right. It's to look at why people really tell urban legends. And one reason is that it is a way for a community or a culture, however big your group of people is, to really think about issues that are affecting them. Right. Maybe there's something scary that is too scary for people to talk about in their normal words. But they need a story to kind of think about that. And maybe this isn't the healthiest way, but it is all way. Yeah. And so, yeah, I think maybe have you learned anything from an urban legend? Yeah. Or have you been affected by an urban legend? Not like, you know, did a semi-flash its lights at you or whatever. But like, you know, oh, I heard this thing and then I thought about it and I knew it wasn't true or something like that. Yeah. I do think, you know, you talked about hope and positivity, Adam. And I think that this program really has an interesting positive urban legend near the end, which is it doesn't actually matter if it's true or not because it can be a story that makes you think about something, right? So like these two boys, they meet at school, one helps the other, and then the other one was going to like commit suicide or leave the school or do something else terrible. And that simple act of friendship helped that person make a better choice. And then they became friends and it really changed his whole life. So in that urban legend, one simple act of kindness changes a whole life. Right. Which I think is a good lesson. It is a good thing. And then urban legend is just a simple story. We have movies and we have TV and I mean, these are all, they're not pretending to be real. But I think we do. We tell stories and we tell them in such a way that gives meaning to the world. And I think this was a great program that makes you think, that makes you question and think critically. So I think all in all, it's not, I think if you haven't listened to this program like listen to it because we may have talked about some of the scarier aspects, but it really is a very thought provoking program. Yeah. And yeah, you can check that out again on our website where you can read along with the script at www.spotlightenglish.com. I feel like I go right through those W's. www. Exactly. You can check it out on YouTube, make sure that you like and subscribe. And you can listen to it wherever you get your podcasts. If you can check us out on social media, anywhere on YouTube, Facebook, Instagram or Twitter, ask us a question. Tell us what you like. Let us know what program is your favorite or just, I don't know, say hi. Until then, listen, watch, practice and learn. Spotlight out.