Show 109 Thursday 20 July

Watch today's show at YouTube or BlipTV.


STICK NEWS

Kia Ora. In Stick News today, Japan and South Korea have agreed to cooperate to try and stop their birthrates from falling any lower.

For a population to keep stable, each woman needs to give birth to 2.1 babies.
Recently, the fertility rates in Japan and South Korea have reached record lows.
In 2005, South Korea’s rate was 1.08 births and Japan’s rate was 1.25.
The two countries have now started joint research on the issue.

And that was Stick News for Thursday the 20th of July.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
# 71 What actually happened?

Mihoko and Sarah talk about Japanese news.
Step 1: Repeat Mihoko’s lines.
Step 2: Read Mihoko’s line’s on the screen and talk to Sarah.

Sarah 　Did you notice that most of the videos on the most watched page on YouTube are about Yamamoto?

Mihoko Yeah, I did see that. What actually happened?

Sarah 　Um, Yamamoto has been accused of raping a 17-year-old girl.

Mihoko Oh really. And who is Yamamoto?

Sarah 　He’s a comedian. He’s a member of the comedy duo Gokuraku Tonbo. The other person is Kato.

Mihoko Oh, he’s the person crying and apologizing isn’t he?

Sarah 　Yeah.

Mihoko And what does it all have to do with baseball?

Sarah 　Well ... Yamamoto also plays baseball. And this alleged rape occurred when they were on a baseball trip to Hokkaido. So the leader of the team decided to disband the team. But then lots of people really wanted the team to continue, so now he’s doubting his decision.

Links:

Today's news about the low birthrates.

New's about Yamamoto.

Music by Drop Trio.
From the album Big Dipper.
Used with permission from magnatune.com
Drop Trio's site is here