This was the first video that I created for the @thelondonnoun YouTube channel. I’m so incredibly grateful that Imran from Crazy Thumbs game me the opportunity to interview him and share his story of transitioning from a corporate role to owning the premier retro video games shop in south London. The whole purpose of London Noun is to help English language learners improve by listening to authentic English and in this video you can Learn English by exploring gaming.
I think one of the most useful aspects of this video is being able to hear someone speak naturally about their passion in a typical London accent. If you follow the @thelondonnoun IG page, you may have seen the post about fillers and slang. These are words or sounds that we use in English to give ourselves a moment to consider what we want to say (fillers) and informal expressions (slang). There are many examples in the interview including ‘basically’, ‘obviously’, ‘like’, ‘I mean’, ‘you know’, ‘innit’ and ‘quid’.
Many people learning English find that they can perfectly understand the audio recordings in their coursebooks, but when they listen to authentic language – natural speech in English, they find it hard to understand. By watching the videos on the London Noun YouTube page, you can get used to how people actually speak in London and the UK.
The video is also useful for English language learners as is contains many interesting expressions and collocations. Here are some that I think are particularly useful:
gaming industry: Sector focused on video games and gaming hardware.
independent stores: Small, privately owned retail businesses.
corporate businesses: Large companies with standardised operations.
storylines: The narrative of a book, game, or media.
concept video games: Experimental games exploring new ideas.
streaming: Watching or transmitting media online in real time.
inventory: Items available for sale or use.
go on the market for: Become available at a specific price.
second-hand: Previously owned items resold.
nostalgia: Sentimental longing for the past.
flashback: A scene showing a past event.
genre: A category defined by shared traits.
How many of these expressions can you hear in the video?
After completing the interview at Crazy Thumbs, I was in the mood to play some retro video games for real. So I headed over to a Museum Lates event at the Science Musuem in South Kensington. At the end of each month, the museum holds an evening event where only adults can attend. This was a great time to explore Power Up!, the museum’s permanent exhibition dedicated to exploring gaming since the 1970s. I played games that I hadn’t thought about since my childhood like ‘Micro Machines’, ‘World of Illusion’ and ‘Aladdin’. The music, graphics and simple game controls all added to the nostalgia. I could remember exactly where I was the last time I played them.
Here are links to the Science Museum:
Museum Lates: https://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/see-and-do/lates
Check out the full video on YouTube:
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The main text of this post was written completely human generated. The vocabulary definitions were generated with the help of AI.
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