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  • Alisha: Hi, everybody. My name is Alisha. Today, I am joined again by

  • Michael: Michael. Hello!

  • Alisha: And today, in a special Halloween episode of English Topics, we're going to

  • be talking about English Scary Stories.

  • So, let's begin.

  • Each of us have prepared a few things.

  • Particularly, things that scared us when we were kids, I think.

  • But, maybe there are some things that still scare us today.

  • I don't know.

  • Before we start, how are you for scary stories?

  • Do they bother you?

  • Do they get to you as an adult now?

  • Michael: Mm.

  • Not really.

  • But, it's not, trying to be macho like, “Oh, I'm not scared.”

  • When I watch scary movies, I get really scared and get really into it.

  • Notgoreas much.

  • Gore, I don't care about.

  • I grew up with violent video games, that kind of stuff.

  • That doesn't faze me.

  • Internet, you see all sorts of crazy stuff but like when it's psychological, I get into

  • it and it stays with me, then I get scared.

  • But stories, I don't know, it's tough to be scared by story.

  • I think I'm spoiled now.

  • So, a story?

  • I don't know.

  • I mean when's the last time someone told you a story and you got really into it and like

  • Alisha: Ah, just hearing the story?

  • Michael: Yeah, just imagining.

  • Alisha: Probably get a little bit dark but when someone tells me about something really

  • shocking that happened to them, not so much a ghost story but it's something scary that

  • happened to them in real life.

  • Then I feel shocked.

  • But, when you're watching a scary movie, do you--?

  • I'm really bad with scary movies.

  • I hide or I like to turn off the sound or turn all the lights in my house or I cry sometimes.

  • I can't handle scary at all.

  • Scary movies?

  • Nope.

  • Michael: Really.

  • Alisha: They're fun to a point but then I can't watch them.

  • Okay.

  • Well with that in mind maybe

  • Michael: Anyways, so

  • Alisha: Alright.

  • I'll start off.

  • I went very generic with mine.

  • The first one, again, this is something from childhood.

  • For me, “The Boogieman.”

  • The Boogieman is sort of a generic, it's a word that parents would use with kids, I think,

  • just for the bad guy.

  • So, Boogieman--if the child is misbehaving or maybe they're supposed to go to bed, they're

  • off being mischievous or whatever.

  • Maybe mom or dad would say, “The Boogieman will get you.”

  • OrWatch out for the Boogieman.”

  • The Boogieman is just a catch-all term for a bad guy or somebody bad, some bad monster

  • creature.

  • So, if there wasn't a specific name for the monster, a specific name for the bad guy or

  • the bad person, you could just call it the Boogieman.

  • And it was adequately scary, I think, for most kids.

  • Did you—?

  • Michael: Yeah, everybody knows the Boogieman.

  • And I think that's true, it's just kind of a catch-all, archetype monster.

  • But, I think, for most families, at least I never knew anybody who said the Boogieman

  • blah, blah, blah, blah.

  • You see it in movies when people talk about monsters they say, “the Boogieman.”

  • It's kind of when you're just trying to think of a name for a person and you'reJoe

  • orJohn.”

  • It's just kind of a name.

  • But, for me, as a kid, or if there are monsters, it was, “The blah, blah, blah monster under

  • your bed.”

  • It would have a specific the--that forest or the closet ghost or whatever.

  • Something like that.

  • I don't know.

  • Just for an example, it would be a specific monster like this, I think--I never had anybody

  • actually tell me the Boogieman was going to get me.

  • I would just see it movies and you just see it when I'm talking about

  • Alisha: Maybe that's true.

  • I don't know.

  • I feel maybe that's true.

  • It's maybe more in movies and it is actual parental child conversations.

  • Michael: But, at least nowadays, I don't know.

  • Maybe back in the day.

  • This one was an urban myth that was one of the only ones that I was told and it scared

  • me so bad, isBloody Mary.”

  • So, not the drink, but Bloody Mary, I wasn't sure if it should be capitalized or not.

  • I don't know if it's—

  • Michael: Oh!

  • Alisha: Samesies!

  • Michael: Samesies.

  • Did you do it?

  • So

  • Alisha: No!

  • I was too scared.

  • Please explain what is Bloody Mary.

  • Michael: So, Bloody Mary, I remember this in elementary.

  • There's a vivid memory and I remember most things back in elementary.

  • But, me and my friends are sitting there in the hallway in between the classes and they're

  • like, “If you go in the bathroom, turn off all the lights, look in the mirror and say,

  • 'Bloody Mary,' three times.

  • Then she'll appear and she'll get you.”

  • And, I don't remember the backstory.

  • It was just some dead woman.

  • I think this comes from a long time ago like Queen Mary.

  • But, at the time, as a kid, it was just a scary old lady or something and I saw her.

  • And, of course, it's just my own reflection, your eyes are playing tricks on you but I

  • ran out the bathroom.

  • I was so scared, heart-pumping, out of my chest.

  • Alisha: Yup, yup.

  • Absolutely.

  • That was terrifying for me, too.

  • I never had the guts to do it.

  • You actually did it?

  • Michael: Yeah.

  • Alisha: I didn't.

  • Michael: It was stupid for me to do it.

  • I was so scary.

  • I ran into the class.

  • Alisha: I never had the guts to.

  • There were a couple times when I thought I would try or I thought I had the guts to do

  • it in a slumber party with my friends.

  • But I'd get to the bathroom and all the lights would be off and I'm like, “Nope, this is

  • not happening.”

  • And then I just leave.

  • I just can't handle this stuff.

  • The other one that I thought of, that was similar to this and I think there's a movie

  • made out of it.

  • I don't know.

  • It's an urban legend but it was calledCandyman.”

  • It was a similar thing like you say, “Candymanin the mirror a few times but in this case,

  • it was a man who would appear behind you and then.

  • I don't know.

  • Cut you or something.

  • I picked a really generic one that's still sort of scary.

  • I just went withHaunted Housesand what I mean by haunted houses is in your childhood,

  • at least I imagine in American childhoods, there are often be around Halloween at a school

  • or at a neighborhood house.

  • Someone's house or someone's whole school will be transformed into just this scary,

  • scary place.

  • So, they'll hang up decorations, they'll turn off all the lights, there will be all this

  • sort of scary things to do.

  • The one that always really scared me was they would take a bowl of grapes essentially but

  • they'd peel them and put them in and put them in a dark place so you couldn't see anything.

  • But they'd say, “Put your hand inside.”

  • And then maybe the next one would be like cold spaghetti and they'd say, “This is

  • someone's eyeballs.”

  • This is someone's brains.”

  • I could never handle that kind of thing or behind curtains, people will jump out.

  • Nope.

  • So, I still can't do that kind of thing.

  • It's still terrifying to me, I won't do it.

  • Really.

  • I'm really not good at scary at all.

  • Michael: I like haunted houses.

  • I mean there was a couple we'd go to.

  • There was one of those in my neighborhood and I think it was abandoned.

  • I don't think anyone lived there.

  • We called itthe goat housebecause everyone said all we'd see is a goat on the

  • area.

  • I didn't live in like a farm area, it was a suburb.

  • So, it was really weird.

  • And it was just once in a blue moon, there would just be a random goat in this plot of

  • land.

  • Alisha: Okay.

  • Please tell me how you made a goat house scary.

  • How is that scary?

  • Michael: Yeah, it sounds stupid when I tell you guys but it was so creepy, man.

  • Well, I'm going to kind of cheat and use this one.

  • This one scared me so much as a kid and I don't know if this is a universal or Western

  • thing like in English movies is themannequinor thedoll that's alive.”

  • Right, that scared me so much.

  • I think once you see it, then you think it.

  • Even theToy Storybecause of the toys.

  • It's a happy movie but even that, it's in my imagination.

  • So, as a kid, I would just stare at my dolls and just kind of give them the skeptical eye.

  • Are you alive?

  • And, I'd close my eyes and I'd do that and I try to catch him.

  • Chucky.”

  • Alisha: Yeah, there are a few movies.

  • I think they were made at that time.

  • It's like a killer doll or some inanimate object that would come to life and get you.

  • That never got to me.

  • What did get to me though was, I think, I saw that Jim Carrey movie, “The Truman Show.”

  • There was that movie where the whole--it wasn't even meant to be a scary movie but just the

  • whole life was not real and there were people watching around everything that you did.

  • That made me paranoid for like a good 20 years.

  • Michael: Amen, dude.

  • I don't know if we talked about this before but that was the same thing that I would look.

  • I'd be going to the bathroom and I'd be there's a hidden camera somewhere.

  • This is like that movie you know--kid's imaginations are too big.

  • I think you see a movie, reality.

  • And you hear a story, reality.

  • Alisha: That one's stuck with me for a really long time.

  • I'd like a word with the people who made that movie.

  • I would like several words with them.

  • Anyway, you have one more, I think.

  • Michael: I do.

  • Alisha: I can see it.

  • Michael: Well, this one's kind of lame butla Chupacabra.”

  • So, it's not really English but because at least in America, we're very close to Mexico,

  • we have had a lot of Spanish influence.

  • So, that's basically our story as well so I grew up hearing stories about this.

  • It was a demon monster that would eat goats.

  • Oh, men.

  • Full circle, there we go.

  • This wasn't something that really scared me but this is one of the few urban legends that

  • I still heard and people still believed like Bigfoot or something like that.

  • Alisha: This is a monster story, right.

  • It could eat small animals, he could eat kids or people, right.

  • Michael: But, they believed it.

  • There's a lot of monsters that you're like, “That doesn't exist,” but--

  • Alisha: ButChupacabrais one that's like, “Well there's some legitimate evidence

  • that there is a Chupacabra.”

  • Michael: Yes, just like Bigfoot.

  • Alisha: A “Chupacabracolony.

  • Okay.

  • All right.

  • That was actually a nice little, varied group of things that are scary especially for young

  • American children.

  • Maybe if you have the guts, you can try Bloody Mary in the mirror.

  • See how it goes for you.

  • We're not responsible if anything bad happens to you, by the way.

  • Alright.

  • Great.

  • So, maybe around Halloween you can think of a few of these and maybe try them on your

  • friends, see how they react.

  • That could be kind of fun.

  • Is there anything that you'd like to do to your friends around Halloween?

  • Michael: Jump out and scare them.

  • Alisha: Yeah, that's a good one.

  • Michael: Drawn a blank.

  • Alisha: Well, if all else fails just jump out and scare your friends this Halloween.

  • Alright. Thank you very much for joining us for this episode of English Topics.

  • We will see you again soon.

  • We have something else fun to talk about.

  • Bye.

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