Learn English Through Story - Chapter 12

This is a short, daily podcast for intermediate to advanced English learners who want to build natural English vocabulary through stories and real-life usage.

In today’s episode, Anna closes Season 3 with the final chapter of Gabriel’s UK journey: while relaxing at the Roman baths in Bath before heading back to France, he gets an urgent call from Sophie saying her parents have been in a car accident and are in Bristol Royal Infirmary. Gabriel rushes to the hospital, reflects on highlights from his travels, and tries to stay grounded.

In the Language Lens section, you’ll learn how evocative verbs create vivid, immersive storytelling.

Listen to learn English the fun way - through story.

🎙️ New episodes are released Monday to Friday.

If you’d like to go deeper with downloads, quizzes, and writing practice, you can explore Podcast+ from English Like a Native.

https://www.joinelan.com/plus

If you enjoy this podcast, please leave a rating/review - it is a simple, free way to support us. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:06

Hello and welcome back to your English Five a Day on the English Like a Native podcast. This is the daily podcast that helps you to expand your vocabulary, improve your listening skills, and feel more confident with the English language. My name is Anna, and today we have our final episode of season three. This is week twelve, day five of our story Following Gabriel. We've followed him across the UK, through cities, countryside, friendships, challenges, and moments that have changed him. And today everything comes together. If you'd like supporting materials for this season, then they can be found at www.joineelan.com forward slash plus. There you will find the full story available as a book in digital or print, and a guided study pack if you'd like to go deeper and continue your learning beyond the podcast. But for now, let's step into the final chapter. Gabriel was in Bath. He was spending the day there before starting to head back east to catch the Eurostar to France later in the week. He spent the morning wandering through the city, admiring its Georgian architecture before making his way to one of the famous Roman baths to which the city owes its name. He was going to pamper himself. His first stop was a soothing hydrotherapy pool. Warm, mineral rich water surrounded him, jets massaging his back and shoulders in slow, deliberate rhythms. Every sign of stress just melted away, leaving him feeling incredibly tranquil. He let his mind drift, imagining the centuries of visitors who had sought the same waters for comfort and healing. After the pool he moved to an aromatherapy steam room. Gentle clouds of lavender and eucalyptus filled the air, wrapping him in a restorative scent. Each breath seemed to calm not only his body but his thoughts, easing away the fatigue of weeks of travel. Being on the road for nearly three months takes its toll even if you don't realize it at the time. Next he enjoyed a rejuvenating massage. Skilled hands worked through the knots in his back and the tightness in his neck, kneading away discomfort and tension. The warmth of the oils, the slow rhythm and the careful pressure combined to create a deeply comforting sensation. He felt a rare sense of stillness in his body. Then, finally, he went up to the rooftop aquasana session. A luxurious combination of thermal currents and gentle water pressure. Floating in the warm mineral rich water, he felt completely renewed from head to toe. Time seemed to evaporate as the spa's calming effect settled over him, leaving him serene and almost weightless. Reluctantly he stepped out of the water and wrapped himself in a soft robe, savouring the lingering calm. As he was getting ready to leave the spa complex, his mobile started to ring. The ringtone was wonderful by oasis, so he knew it was Sophie.

SPEAKER_02 4:25

Hi, Sophie, how are things in Lyon?

SPEAKER_01 4:28

He asked, in an extremely contented voice. But Sophie's voice was rushed, urgent, instantly snapping Gabriel out of his tranquillity. She blurted out My parents have been in a car accident, Gabe, and I'm coming home. At the spa Gabriel had been looking back over his entire journey. What had been his highlights? He'd been on the Beatles Trail in Liverpool and had a wild night out in Manchester. He remembered his embarrassment at believing the Roman ghosts in York were real, and also nearly losing his suitcase in Edinburgh. But the spirit of that city had moved him to write a poem that had got him noticed by a wider audience than just his family, friends, and acquaintances. It was something that could carry him forward in his life and adventures. He truly appreciated how warmly the people of Glasgow had welcomed him, and the highlands were absolutely breathtaking. Oh and how could he have forgotten coming down a mountain in the Peak District, his boot tied on with a scarf? Now he had come to the West Country on the last leg of his trip, and he realized that he had hardly made any effort to find out what people thought about Brexit. It hadn't been at the forefront of his mind at all. That really summed up his whole experience. You don't get to know a place by talking, reading and hearing about it from a distance. You do it by actually being there and being part of it. The guys from Manchester had taken it well when he said he would support England in the football matches until they played France. In Glasgow he had joined a club where they watched French films and talked about them in French. No one had even mentioned the European Union, apart from Gabriel himself. Then Sophie, Stonehenge, Longleat, and the breakdown. Sophie's parents' car But she'd fixed the problem, hadn't she? My parents have been in a car accident Life changing words. Sophie managed to tell Gabriel that her parents were at the Bristol Royal Infirmary before she had to dash off to the train station. All Gabriel could do was promise her that he would be at the hospital when she arrived. In a way, Gabriel felt that it was like being in Liverpool for the first time. The situation was overwhelming, and it was hard to take it all in. But this time it was on a monumental scale. He didn't have any idea how serious Sophie's parents' condition was. He hadn't asked when Sophie called, only wanting to reassure her that he would be there for her and not wanting to hold her up. It was a nightmarish scenario. Luckily, if that was the right word, Gabriel was still nearby, and so it was easy for him to get to the hospital. On the train from Bath Spa Station he just felt numb. He wasn't close family, so he wouldn't be allowed to see Sophie's parents. He hadn't even met them before, in fact. But he had to do something to try to counter the devastating news with some positive energy. He took out the stones that he had bought in Glastonbury Red Jasper for courage, blue lapis lazuli for wisdom, yellow citrine for hope, pink rose quartz for emotional comfort, green cornish serpentine for grounding orange calcite for optimism and purple amethyst for healing. He massaged them into his palm, squeezing them tightly from time to time, feeling their edges pressing into his skin. Maybe they were just ordinary stones, but perhaps he had them for a reason. It must have been shattering for Sophie to hear the news. And now another vibration on his mobile. Was it Sophie again? He squeezed the stones tight and checked. A call from an unknown number. He had to answer. He swiped the green icon, and an unfamiliar, strange sounding voice greeted him.

SPEAKER_00 9:44

Am I speaking to Gabriel Morel?

SPEAKER_01 9:46

The voice asked.

SPEAKER_02 9:48

Yes. Who is this?

SPEAKER_01 9:50

Gabriel replied.

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Hello, Gabriel. My name is Val. I'm calling from Legacy Lens in New Zealand.

SPEAKER_02 9:57

New Zealand?

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Gabriel asked in disbelief.

SPEAKER_00 10:00

That's right. We're a Kiwi startup going online in a couple of months and we'd like to talk to you about a travel writing position. Is now a good time to talk.

SPEAKER_01 10:10

When Gabriel arrived at the hospital, he said who he was and explained the situation. The staff were sympathetic but professional. As Gabriel was not a family member, they weren't allowed to tell him anything. It was out of their hands. Even so, Gabriel asked the nurse to tell Sophie's parents that Sophie was coming. Before dragging his suitcase over to the cafe. He felt absurd, as if he were at some sort of surreal airport where you brought your luggage of the past in order to wait for someone who was already there, but who might never leave. It had actually crossed his mind briefly to dump his suitcase somewhere, but in a weird way, it served as something he could look after. Everything else was beyond his control, so the suitcase was something that he could still manage, a hopeful symbol of Sophie's emotions and her parents' condition. The last time he had been in a hospital was with his grandmother. So many things in life were not up to us. She had passed away too soon, and Sophie's parents were much younger than her. Gabriel thought bitterly that our human plans are no match for reality. Life is not tidy or predictable for long. It is often spontaneous, cruel and inexplicable. There is destiny and there is fate. Which one was this? He asked himself. He sat at a table and pulled out his mobile. The last call was from the unknown number. He'd just hung up on them, but he saw that they had left him a message.

SPEAKER_00 12:16

Hello, Gabriel. I started to speak to you just now, but we were cut off. I'm Val from Legacy Lens. I met you briefly at the travel writing final Q ⁇ A. In a nutshell we'd like to feel you out about doing some travel writing for us, in English and French, about the French Pacific and Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Give me a call when you can. Merci.

SPEAKER_01 12:40

Truly, there were mysterious forces at work. Gabriel couldn't face staying at the hospital, so he found somewhere else to sleep. It wasn't close to the hospital, but he made sure that he kept his phone on just in case. There was no call from Sophie, and no message when he woke. Should I call her? he wondered. He decided he should, even if it was a bad moment. He did, but there was no answer. Try again later, he thought, and he got himself ready to go back to the hospital. Just to compound things, it was chucking it down with rain, so he caught the bus there. He was exhausted, so maybe it was just as well. As the driver was pulling into the nearest bus stop to the hospital, he saw Sophie outside, holding an umbrella and smoking a cigarette. But she didn't smoke, nor did she have such short hair. Had she cut it in France after she had left him in Bristol? He grabbed his mobile to call her in case she disappeared before he got off the bus. He jumped off and ran towards her through the pouring rain, with his phone still in his hand, calling her name. She turned in his direction. She looked straight at Gabriel. But it wasn't Sophie, after all. He tried to stop running as soon as he realized, but he skidded on something and smashed hard into the towering, wayfinding signpost outside the main door. As he got up he yelled out with pain and fell back, as his right leg wouldn't support him. For a few moments he was alone and in agony in the pouring rain. The woman went to get help, and she and two hospital workers splashed through the puddles to reach him. She tried to shelter them with the umbrella as they quickly assessed Gabriel, stabilizing his leg and lifted him onto a collapsible stretcher.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

We'll take you for an x-ray, sir, one of them reassured him.

SPEAKER_01 15:05

Through the pain, Gabriel insisted.

SPEAKER_02 15:10

Her parents are here. They had a car crash.

SPEAKER_01 15:14

They made sure he was safely inside before asking if there was anyone he wanted to call.

SPEAKER_02 15:20

Oh, where is my mobile?

SPEAKER_01 15:22

Gabriel reached into his pocket but felt only the Glastonbury stones there. Outside, vibrating helplessly, in a rippling, swelling puddle by the signpost was his mobile. The rain hammered down on it, as if it were trying to answer the incoming call itself. A woman stepped out of the main entrance with her own phone pressed against her ear. She saw the mobile flashing next to the wayfinding signpost. She went over and saw the words flashing up in French on the screen. Appelle entrant S heart es heart. She grabbed it and rushed back inside as fast as her legs could carry her. Okay, so I've left you with a bit of a cliffhanger which I know can be incredibly irritating, but I would like you to tell me how you think the story should end. So please let me know in the comments how you would wrap up that story. What ending would satisfy you? I really look forward to reading your thoughts and ideas. But don't go anywhere because now it's time for our language lens. We're going to talk about something that makes writing really come alive. What I like to call evocative verbs. Now you might be thinking a verb is just a verb, right? Well, yes and no. Ordinary verbs like walked, said, looked tell us what happens. They move the story forward, but evocative verbs do something more. They don't just describe the action, they draw the reader or listener into the scene, into the character's body, their mind, their emotions. They make a story vivid, immediate, and memorable. Think about Gabriel in his final planned week in the UK. In Bath he's at a Roman bath, and the text doesn't just say he enjoyed the pool. No, it says he let his mind drift, that his stress melted away, and that he savoured the calm. Each of those verbs or verb phrases does more than move the story along. They put us in his perspective. They help us feel what he feels, and they make the experience immersive. Evocative verbs can connect parts of the story too. When Gabriel massages the stones into his palms on his way to the hospital, it recalls the events of the previous day, the calm of the Roman bath. The rippling of the puddle in the final scene is intended to evoke the idea that there is still life in the characters, like the pulsations of a beating heart. Meanwhile, the puddle swells, mirroring the growing drama but also threatening the survival of the mobile and thus the story. Other evocative verbs express state of mind or physical condition. Gabriel doesn't just pull his suitcase to the hospital cafe, he drags it. It's more of an effort than it should be, and for obvious reasons. On the other hand, his stress had melted away at the spa, intensifying the feeling of relief by using a visual metaphor to enhance it. Some verbs create immediacy, intensity or tension. Sophie didn't just have to leave, she had to dash off. Gabriel didn't just shout when he fell, he yelled. And during moments of extreme concern and helplessness on the train, he was contrastingly greeted by a message from a stranger. Evocative verbs don't just tell us what happens. They aim to make us feel it, sense it, and think about it more. They are one of the simplest and most enjoyable ways to turn ordinary action into immersive storytelling. These are the verbs that engage your audience and enable the story to stay with them long after they finished reading or listening. So how can you use this in your own writing and storytelling? Here's a short exercise for you. Write a paragraph that wraps up the story in the way that you think it should end. Then take that paragraph and highlight all the verbs. Ask yourself, which verbs are ordinary and which ones draw the reader in. Choose three ordinary verbs, maybe walked, said, looked, and replace them with evocative verbs. Make them sensory, emotional, reflective or immediate. Read it aloud, notice the difference. You should feel the scene more vividly. And once you've done that, please do share your work in the comments. And then take a moment to read other people's comments. I love these kinds of tasks. And that brings us to the end of this season. If you've been with me from the beginning, thank you. If you've just joined, welcome. You've got so much to catch up on. Gabriel's journey may be fictional, but the language, the emotions, and the experiences are very real, at least for us. So, I implore you to keep listening, keep practicing, keep telling. Telling your story. If you'd like to continue your learning with Gabriel, then you can find all the supporting materials at joinelan.com forward slash plus. If you'd like to learn more with me beyond the podcast, then head to englishlikernative.co.uk where you'll find courses and services to help you with your English. Until next time, take care and goodbye.