Transcript of my podcast episode (1)

Surprise! You must have thought I abandoned you entirely after the last ENGSPRESSO episode. Well, I cannot promise it will never happen, but I’ve come up with yet another idea lately, and I guess it may work! As I don’t have too much time to prepare full ENGSPRESSO episodes, I’ve decided to create their mini versions instead. I believe they’ll be equally good or even better than the previous episodes. Why? Because they’re going to be very minimalistic and to the point!
Basically, you probably like to listen to this podcast because of the short and (I believe) listener-friendly formula as well as my presence here — my voice and my English accent! So there’s you and me, our English expressions, and example sentences. What else do we need? We can definitely skip all the intros, music, and even the clock ticking sound. Thanks to that, it won’t take me so long to prepare these episodes. I don’t know if I’ve ever mentioned it to you, but I needed at least 5 hours to prepare one full episode. It was mostly because of all these extra elements added to the recordings during the editing process. And another plus now will be that you won’t get too distracted when listening to me, and you’ll be able to focus on the most important part, i.e. repeating the sentences after me in silence. So even the sound of the ticking clock won’t stress you any more! So as you can hear, I’m going to cut down on the amount of work and make myself more productive at the same time because practically, in every mini ENGSPRESSO episode we’re going to get down to practising English right away! And last but not least, you’ll save some time too as the mini versions of my episodes will be much shorter.

So now it’s time to teach you another two expressions!

The first expression for today is IN VAIN. If something is done in vain, it’s done unsuccessfully — it doesn’t bring any results.

For instance: I searched for my keys all over the house, but it was in vain. Now, repeat after me.
The translation is: Szukałam kluczy w całym domu, ale na próżno.

Another example: We kept refreshing the website to buy concert tickets, but it was in vain — they were sold out.
Wciąż odświeżaliśmy stronę, żeby kupić bilety na koncert, ale na próżno — zostały wyprzedane.

The second expression is THE LAST RESORT. It is the only choice that remains after all others have been tried.

For instance: If there’s nothing left in the fridge, we’ll order fast food as our last resort.
Jeśli nic nie zostało w lodówce, w ostateczności zamówimy fast food.

Another example: He didn’t want to ask his neighbour for help, but it was the last resort when his wi-fi stopped working.
Nie chciał prosić sąsiada o pomoc, ale była to jego ostatnia deska ratunku, kiedy przestał mu działać internet.

And now it’s time for your ENGSPRESSO to go!

Our context for the phrases is:

He was trying to repair the device, but it was all in vain, so he had no choice but to call the emergency hotline as the last resort.
Próbował naprawić urządzenie, ale wszystko na próżno, więc nie miał wyboru i w ostateczności musiał zadzwonić na infolinię alarmową.

All right! I hope you’re happy that I’m back. I’m also curious what you think about the new mini version of ENGSPRESSO episodes. Of course, this episode is not that short because of the necessary explanations in the beginning, but next time, you can expect something much shorter for sure.
As usual, you’ll find the transcript of today’s mini ENGSPRESSO in the description of the episode or directly on my website angielskidokawy.pl. Don’t forget to share your feedback with me in the comments on Spotify!

Thanks for tuning in and speak to you soon!