 Everyone, we are live. I am Adam Navas, and I am here with Liz Wade, and we should be on both YouTube and Facebook. Feel free to make a comment, ask a question, let us know that our sound is working. What are you? We have a new guest with us today. Yes, we have a little guest here. And maybe you can even hear her. Can you hear her purring? I can, yes. She looks like she's trying to get away, but she actually loves me. Oh, she does look like she's trying to... This is... yeah, okay. So Liz, before we get into what you're holding, I am going to let people know that we are live. Put your comments in the questions and questions in the comments, and we'll try to answer them. And as soon as we... I'm going to roll the intro, and then you're going to tell us all about this little ball of fur. Are you ready? Yes. Okay. We're going to have to update that intro because we look so much younger. We're getting... Not younger. I think this last year has worn on us. Uh-oh. Seriously. You know... There we go. There's a lot of technical difficulties when I'm trying to hold this kitten at the same time. Mm-hmm. You're a kitty. So tell us about this kitten. What you didn't have... So I will tell you. Wait, last time you used to have a cat, right? Do you still have that cat, or has it sadly passed? No. No, no, no. We still have a cat. She's about 10 years old, but we have been looking for a friend for our cat for a long time, a couple years, when our last cat did pass away. And so this, maybe a week and a half ago, we contacted the shelter... No, a month ago, we contacted the shelter. And then we were able to visit her and take her home. And the shelter, of course, is where they take care of animals that don't have a home. So they try to take care of them until people like us can adopt them. And we have this little kitten. And she is adorable. And what is your kitten's name? Well, how did you come up with the name? Because naming something, I know when I've named my children or the dog... It can be a powerful thing, but also, did you have any disagreement among your family members? Oh, yes. We had plenty of disagreement about what this kitten's name was going to be. And we finally decided that her name would be Mystery. Mystery. Her name is Mystery History. Mystery History. So Mystery means something you don't know and are trying to figure out. And History is an event that happened in the past. So tell me how you came up with Mystery History, which also is a nice rhyme. Yes. Well, I do have a five-year-old who had most of the naming help in this... Or did most of the naming for this kitten. And you know what? Actually, she wants to run free. So I'm going to let her free for a little bit. Okay. There we go. Okay. But we kind of all worked together and we were just talking about different names and what would be good for her. And we practiced calling her with it. And I don't know. It's hard to name a cat. I always feel like you have to name something after you meet them. So were there any suggestions based on her fur? Or you mean after you meet them, her catnality? Yeah, exactly. After you meet her personality, her catnality, which is not a word. She's not a person. See, she didn't have a personality. Yeah, but still. Well, that's great. But anyway, so that has been the big thing in our house. And I love it because anytime, well, especially for the first week, anytime you picked her up, she would just start purring and purring and purring. And she just loves to be by people and like cuddle. So you felt loved in a way that neither your husband nor children could give you. You just, you felt like that unconditional love. No. No, but it's good. It's very fun having a kitten, although we are all covered in little kitten claw scratches. Oh. You know, not because she's mad or anything, but just because kittens have extremely sharp claws, like little claws. I would love to hear if any of our listeners who are watching right now have like pets or have had a kitten before. Yeah. Like maybe you have some tips for introducing a new kitten to an old cat or maybe how not to get little kitten scratches all over yourself. Yeah, or how to deal with them once you have them. Adam, are you frozen? Are you frozen? I think you're good. I can hear you. I think that we're having some technical training. Okay. So just let's give it a minute. Okay. All right. I can hear you. Okay. I see you. Do you ever have this where you're having technical difficulties and you feel like if you don't move, it somehow it will get better? Yeah. Like if you're fault, you're influencing it. Anyway, we're just going to plow through. So we apologize. Adam, I think we need to do some shout-out. Okay. Yes. Okay. We have, Salon says, Abdul Salon from Somalia. Hello, Somalia. Tefo says, hi from Amsterdam. Oh, a couple of comments about the very cute kitten. Agnaldo says, I'm from Brazil. Wei says, I come from Vietnam. Nice to meet you. We've got a lot from Vietnam. Nala Mala from Syria. Hello. Glad you could join us. Oh, and Aghil says, hey, Adam Navas. How are you? I am well. I went for a nice long run this morning already. So I'm feeling excited about my day and excited to be here. Yeah. And that's great. Did you get rained on? No, it had stopped raining by then. You what? It had stopped raining. It was raining earlier. Oh, that's good. But there's something I want to share with this community. And I am more aware of the rain these days because... Yes. I was wondering if you were going to say that. I'm going to show you a little picture of something that I got. Are you ready? All right. That is me. That is a picture of me. I mean, if anybody knows what this is, put it in the comments. But this is a Honda Monkey. It is a motorcycle that... Monkey? Monkey. It's called a monkey. It's a monkey, you said? Monkey. Because when you sit on it, you look like a big... I'll close the picture. When you sit on it, you look like a huge gorilla riding a little tiny motorcycle. So they call it the monkey. So I know that in a lot of places in the world, people ride small motorcycles and scooters much more than here in the United States. In the United States, it's much more popular to get a big Harley Davidson or something that's a big Honda. But I have really enjoyed... I had to take a weekend class. I wear a helmet. I try to stay safe. But I want to know if there are other people from the spotlight community who enjoy riding a scooter or a motorcycle or wish that they did. So yeah, it's kind of a new thing. It's a little midlife crisis. It's a little... I've been on quarantine in my house for too long and I need to get outside and be safe. And it's a little just fun. Well, for me, that seems a little dangerous. But I am very happy to hear that you are wearing a helmet, Adam. And I wear gloves and shoes. I mean, there's danger all around us. It's about risk. It's a little dangerous. Although probably all of our Vietnamese listeners who ride motorbikes all the time are thinking, oh, I do that 10 times a day. Yeah, probably with another person on the back. Yeah, they're just... It's fine. Oh my goodness, we're having a lot of technical doubts here. We're just having some lag, I think. Well, such as it is. Well, we have been talking about ourselves. We would love to answer some of your questions if you have a particular spotlight program that you have heard recently and have some questions about that. We'd love to hear that. We also have been doing a new program which we've talked about... Yes, I was gonna talk about that. We've talked about in the past, but Liz, why don't you tell people kind of about this new program that they may not have heard about? Yes, okay. So, you know, as many of our listeners already know, we have our classic spotlight program where we speak in a very clear and slow way about interesting topics, right? And then we also have our advanced program that uses our same simpler English style, but we speak in a more, like, in a faster way with more of a native English speaker style. But we didn't ever have anything that was like a full conversation unless it was this program, right? But every Thursday now, we have a new program where Adam and I have a conversation about that week's program. So, for example, we had a program about teenagers and about how to be a healthy teen. And then Adam and I, maybe lots of our listeners already watched this conversation program, but we talked about what it was like when we were teenagers and things that we learned in the program or while making the program. And we just talk about that stuff on the fly. So this is a real conversation between two native English speakers talking about something that you've hopefully already listened to so you can really practice your understanding of the program, but also you can just practice listening to a native English-speaking conversation. Yeah, I'm really excited because there are a lot of things that, as we're writing the program and cutting it down for time that get left out. So we have to... It gives us an exciting another way to share with you what we've learned, share different websites, tell you about similar programs that we've already done, that if you liked one program, you may like another. And it really is a great way for you to kind of take your English learning to the next level, but also you're just general learning to the next level of, you know, what programs are about. Yeah, and I think that people have really responded well. Excuse me. So they've really enjoyed hearing the conversations and just having that opportunity to think about something not in a structured way, but in sort of a off the cuff, on the fly sort of way. We just talk like we would talk if we were normally talking. Yeah. And there is a playlist of these programs, is that correct? Oh, yes. Yeah, there's definitely... So you could listen to all the conversations. And sometimes we do... I mean, well, we always do talk about the things that happen in the program. At least listen to the advanced version or one of the program versions before so that you can join in with your thoughts and things. And we love it when people leave comments on there. I try to get through every comment and I try to respond back. So it's a cool way to join a conversation. I want to give some shout outs. I apologize for mispronunciation, but Kim Yuan says, I ride a motorcycle to work every day. Oh, see? Even in the rain? Oh. Do you ride in the rain? What do you do? Do you go more slowly? I just avoid riding in the rain. That's my approach. Yeah, although maybe like anything with practice, you just get better. So you learn how to ride in the rain. I'm sure. Kind of makes me nervous though. Yeah. Joaquim Julio Silva says, hey there, I'm from Portugal. Hello Joaquim. Let's see who else we've got. You got any Facebook shout outs? Yep, yep, yep. Pedro, hello. I'm from Brazil. Viong Vidi says, great to hear your voices. You know, we've got to figure out a way to hear from listeners. Maybe we need to set up some kind of video drop box where people can ask us questions and share. Yeah, that would be so fun. You know, Adam, I was going to talk about this. I think it's a great time to tell our listeners that we are thinking about joining YouTube memberships. Yes. We've done Patreon for a while. But we have heard from a lot of people actually that they can't access Patreon but they still want to help us pay for content, right? And maybe even they want to get a little bit extra. They want their comments to stand out in our chat stream. That sort of stuff. And so we have been working to get that set up. And so hopefully really soon we will be able to let you, well, we'll let you participate in another way, in another level, right? And that you can show your support for this channel by supporting us. Yeah. You get a little extra. You help us out. Yes. And I think that is one of the like, maybe we set up a Dropbox and in these in these conversations, we answer your questions that you have put in to that Dropbox. And it would be a great way. We're always moving. Always thinking. And it would be a great way for you, people who are watching this to practice speaking. And that is one thing that we haven't really figured out how to offer a spotlight way to practice speaking. So that could be a really, a really fun way. Yes, we always we always have thousands of ideas, don't we? Yeah, we do. You know, the problem is time. Time and money. Yeah. Tambui says pray for India. I know that people in India are really hurting right now. Yeah. With the pandemic. So shout out to everybody in India. There's other people. Our hearts go out to you guys. Yeah, Brazil too. Brazil is being hit really hard. So a lot of the places we haven't even talked about pandemic and all the places around the world that are, you know, some go up, some go down. It just seems like that's always here. We haven't forgotten that. Yeah. Oh, definitely. I mean, I think back to maybe when we did our first live show during the pandemic and how we spent most about it, most of it talking about COVID and not knowing so many things about how long it would be or what we would have to do for a long time. And I feel like now we got some things right, right? Right. But some of the things yeah, I had hoped we'd be passed them by now. Well, for people who've joined this channel in the last year, may not know that we used to be in the same place to do these, that we used to be sitting. Yeah, that's true. Right. Well, right next to each other. And now we're doing it from our own homes. Yeah, we were talking about the intro and how we maybe needed to make a new intro because we looked so different back then. And we were sitting next to each other and laughing and now we're miles away. Miles away. Miles away. But you know, just like lots of people were, that's how we started doing this. Yeah. Lots of people were making content across. Exactly. We've had to adapt. Well, I don't think we'll stop doing it this way, but I think it sure would be nice to be able to eventually have the option of getting together and being in the same place. Yeah. Someday, Adam. Someday. Hui says, how about COVID-19 in your country for now? In the United States I think is it maybe like 27% are fully vaccinated? But of course here, I don't know if this is the same sort of debate in countries everywhere. I think there are some countries that have the same sort of debate, but here a lot of people are fighting wearing masks. So of course that prolongs our our experience of COVID and allows other variants to take hold. So it's good. I think that there's been just a lot of fighting. Yeah. Which I wish that we could all just take care of each other and recognize that wearing a mask is important and taking care of each other. That's one way we can do that. Yeah. You know, you have to do your part and you can't solve the problem, but you can do your part. Yeah. So for me and my family as many people know, I make masks. So we have many, many masks and I also, if anyone needs a mask I always give them one. But we try to wear our masks mostly even as examples. So when we go out, even if we don't have to wear a mask, many times we all wear one anyway just as a way to as a way to tell people like we respect you and we are doing this to take care of you. To make sure everybody feels comfortable and yep. Yeah. That's really great. Wow. We got a few comments. Yeah. It seems like that, doesn't it? We do actually have very, very many Vietnamese listeners who are very active on YouTube. But we have one of the things that I love about this program right here is that we hear from people who are listening to spotlight and they come from literally all over the world. Yeah. Like we have someone from every country it's amazing. I mean we have active in Saudi Arabia, Japan, Brazil, Vietnam, Poland, United States, Canada, I mean these are just Russia, Georgia, Germany, Spain, Italy, like everywhere. It's amazing. Like there is maybe only Vietnamese people but there is everyone here and it's really great. Yeah. I want to address this. Islam Hamdi asks, if I understand you very well, what is my level of English? We can't answer that as far as there's a lot of different systems that rank level 1, 2, 3. If you can understand us your English is very good because we are talking, we are not talking slower, we are talking in normal English. So I would say if you understand what we are saying right now you could probably travel without much fear or you could probably depending on the job I don't want to say because understanding is different than speaking but you could probably work pretty well in an English speaking context. Yeah. I was going to say that same thing that I have tried to learn a few languages over time and I think that sometimes it's way easier for me to understand things than it is to actually say them so I do think there is a difference there but if you can understand everything that we are saying, I think that's a pretty high level of understanding. I barely understand everything that I am saying. Sometimes I do have to say like I have visited England a few times and of course I am from the US and sometimes when I go there and I will be in a restaurant or whatever a waiter will say things to me and I don't understand them because the accent is so different. I mean and they do use slightly different words for things which can be confusing but it mostly is just training your ear to listen and this is just a little plug if you are looking for the US accent not only is this program a good choice the live programs and maybe our conversation programs but we also have a list of US accent programs that you can listen to just listen to the US accent we are working on one for the UK as well so Flung says each of your topics is not only teaching us the way to speak English but also meaningful and informative for us and that I just when I read that I just think that's exactly it that's perfect that is exactly what we try to do to help people practice English learn new vocabulary but also to like learn about the world and to learn about their place in the world what they can do to be a more global citizen or to take care of people or to just yeah to have hope about the world I mean there are a lot of very good YouTube channels that will teach you vocabulary or grammar or different lessons and that's great we're not trying to say that but our approach and we're proud of it and we are excited to when people kind of get it and it's clear that you do Vung say I apologize if I'm saying your name wrong but has asked a couple of times is the tongue important for English pronunciation and that is a great question and I know I just said we have this method but we will say that long term hope to be able to offer some resources on pronunciation and how you use your mouth your teeth and your tongue to print to make the English sounds so that is that's not happening soon but maybe in the next year so yeah I think of this a lot because whenever I go visit another country my full name is Elizabeth and of course has so many very difficult to pronounce sounds in it for speakers of other languages the TH sound is very difficult for many many language speakers the L sound Elizabeth is also very difficult for some English speakers so Liz that just works really great but yeah people really want that help making those sounds and I think we got it we're working on it we appreciate your question and keep them coming we have been talking for about 27 minutes so like always this time just flies by but if you have a question please we've got a few more minutes we'll try to answer it alright I want to do one quick shout out to Christian who says as a teacher I use your programs in my listening skills so I would like to shout out to all of your classes to you as a teacher great job yeah let us know what your favorite programs are what's most helpful for you we love when people we love when people use use the program in a classroom setting that's great awesome I also want to do a quick shout out because we're getting to the end of our time to check out our blog we just recently put up a new blog about ways to say no without exactly using the word like no which can sometimes feel a little rude or what we might say blunt where you don't want to say no but we have some polite ways to say no in that blog along with a ton of other great content yeah and so that is it's something you will read practice your English reading and if you want to have like follow the whole script if you've just watched the YouTube programs our website there's a lot of resources beyond the blog you can read the whole script at once so just visiting there you'll find some playlists of programs that it's just arranged a little differently so check that out that's spotlightenglish.com and I'm sure that's in the notes of this program and oh I've got one more I've got a comment on this one I don't know it's in a different language but I still have problems with this word laundry that is a hard word yes that is laundry yes laundry well because it has got the L and the R and there are in sounds that are together so it's laundry yeah you know I will be honest I have a hard time saying the word English I think that is a very difficult word it's way back in your throat English English English laundry here is my best one there is a YouTube video that maybe I can even link it in this video but it's a YouTube video about having Germans say the word squirrel because of course that is an infamously difficult word to say in English squirrel but then there is also a video where people from the US try to say the word for squirrel in German I would like to see that it's Eichenjin Eichenjin well so laundry you are correct in struggling with that word laundry yeah you are not alone in struggling to say English words even we struggle to say those sort of things well this has been a lot of fun Liz I am surprised it went by so fast yeah so until next time make sure you check out the playlists, the conversation programs make sure you leave some comments we will try to address them and get to them when we can yep you can follow us on Twitter you can follow us on Facebook you can subscribe on YouTube and hit the little bell so you don't miss any of our videos so that you are always up to date with our new content we release content on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday usually so you can look forward to it on those days alright have a wonderful day or night wherever you are and we will talk to you again later yeah thank you so much for listening thank you for subscribing and we hope to hear from you soon bye