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Real Easy English

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Talking about mistakes

Episode 250502 / 02 May 2025

(Photo: Getty)

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Introduction

Beth and Neil have a real conversation in easy English about mistakes and regrets. Learn to talk about when things go wrong.

Vocabulary

mistake
an action that is wrong or that you don't mean to do

(do something) by mistake
do something accidentally, without meaning to

regret
feel bad or sorry about something you've done

learn from your mistakes
a common expression which means remember something you did wrong and not do it again

Transcript

Neil
Hello and welcome to Real Easy English, the podcast where we have real conversations in easy English to help you learn. I'm Neil.

Beth
And I'm Beth. You can find a video version of this podcast and a worksheet to help you learn on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Neil
How are you today, Beth?

Beth
I'm OK, Neil. I'm a little bit tired. How are you?

Neil
I'm very well. I'm fine. Great.

Beth
Good, good. Well, today we're going to talk about mistakes. So hopefully I won't make many mistakes, being tired.

Neil
No. Mistakes, mistakes can be things that are wrong, like a mistake in a maths problem. But we can also use mistake to talk about really big things in life. Decisions that you've made, actions that you've taken.

Beth
Yes. That's true. So I think let's start the conversation.

Neil
Let's do it. So, Beth, have you made any mistakes recently?

Beth
Yes. So I recently left my suitcase on a train by mistake.

Neil
Oh, no.

Beth
So I was travelling from home to Leeds on the train. And I got to the station at Leeds, and there were loads of people, and they were, they were football fans and they were singing really loudly. And I just wanted to get off the train. And that's what I did. And then I realised about half an hour later that I didn't have my suitcase.

Neil
Oh no.

Beth
So...

Neil
That's a bad mistake. Did you get it back?

Beth
I did, I was so lucky. The train stopped at Leeds. So when I realised I ran and said to the people on the platform, "My suitcase is on the train!" And they held the train for me and I ran up the platform. I grabbed my suitcase and then they blew the whistle and the train went. I was so lucky. But yeah, that was a big mistake. And I will not make that mistake again.

Neil
Everybody says that.

Beth
So earlier we said that mistakes can be small things, like my suitcase. But there are big mistakes that we can make. So have you ever made a big mistake, do you think?

Neil
Yeah. Well, once I had a job that I really, really enjoyed, I was teaching at a school in Prague, in the Czech Republic, teaching English, and I loved the job and I had loads of really good friends. But I had this feeling that I needed to go move somewhere else, do something else with my life. And so I resigned. But then about a week or so later, I realised that I really, really didn't want to leave that school. So I went back to the boss and I said, "I've changed my mind. I want to stay". And he said, "Well, it's too late because I've given your job to somebody else".

Beth
Oh, no, that's so sad. So you left your job? Left Prague?

Neil
No, actually, a bit like your suitcase, Beth, it ended up, it ended up being OK because the person who took my job then decided that he didn't want the job either. So in the end, I did stay.

Beth
So when we make mistakes, Neil, sometimes we then have a regret or we regret the thing that we did. That means that we feel bad about it. Or we wish that we'd done something differently. Do you have any regrets?

Neil
Yeah. When I was a kid, I guess I was probably 12 or 13, I had some piano lessons, and I quit as soon as I could. My parents gave me that choice. And I regret that because I love music and I play guitar, and I think I would have enjoyed playing piano.

Beth
I always think, to be honest, you shouldn't have any regrets, because whatever you've done, you've learnt something from it. Even if something bad happened, then you know for next time. And it's a kind of self-improvement thing.

Neil
That is a very positive attitude to mistakes, Beth.

Beth
Yeah, I think it's important to learn from your mistakes. And that's a common expression in English, to learn from your mistakes.

Neil
Let's recap the vocabulary we've learnt in this podcast. Starting with mistake. And a mistake is an action that is wrong or that you do when you don't mean to.

Beth
And we can make a mistake. That means we do something wrong. Or we can do something bymistake, which means we do something accidentally without meaning to. For example, I left my suitcase on the train by mistake.

Neil
We also heard regret, which means feel bad or sorry about something you've done or a mistake that you've made.

Beth
And we heard learn from your mistakes, which means remember the mistake and then not do it again the next time.

Neil
That's it for this episode of Real Easy English. You can test yourself on what you've learned with a worksheet on our website, bbclearningenglish.com.

Beth
Next week we'll be talking about trains, buses and public transport.

Neil
See you then. Goodbye.

Beth
Bye.

 

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