Show 173 Monday 23 October

Watch today's show at YouTube

Intro

Hi, I’m Sarah. Welcome to The Daily English Show. On Thursday I was talking about long words in German and in English.
And then I did a bit more reading and I found out that the longest English place name in the world is in New Zealand. It’s the name of a hill and the name is:
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu
I remember memorizing that word when I was at University for a cool party trick. It’s 85 letters long. So that’s the longest officially recognized place name in an English-speaking country. But there are longer place names in other languages. And the longest place name in the world spelt in English is this:
Krungthepmahanakornamornratanakosinmahintarayutthayamahadilokphopnopparatrajathaniburiromudomrajaniwesmahasatharnamornphimarnavatarnsathitsakkattiyavisanukamprasit
That’s the full ceremonial name of the city of Bangkok in Thailand.
This is the name in Thai:
กรุงเทพมหานคร อมรรัตนโกสินทร์ มหินทราอยุธยามหาดิลก ภพนพรัตน์ ราชธานีบุรีรมย์ อุดมราชนิเวศน์ มหาสถาน อมรพิมาน อวตารสถิต สักกะทัตติยะ วิษณุกรรมประสิทธิ์
And this is what it means:
"The city of angels, the great city, the eternal jewel city, the impregnable city of God Indra, the grand capital of the world endowed with nine precious gems, the happy city, abounding in an enormous Royal Palace that resembles the heavenly abode where reigns the reincarnated god, a city given by Indra and built by Vishnukam."

STICK NEWS

Kia Ora, in Stick News today a New Zealand man has been honored with a Darwin Award.

Charles Robert Darwin was an English man. He was born in 1809 and died in 1882. In 1859 he wrote a book called The Origin of Species.
He proposed the theory of natural selection.
Natural selection is the process by which individual organisms with favorable traits are more likely to survive and reproduce than those with unfavorable traits.
Darwin Awards are named after Charles Darwin.
A Darwin Award is given to someone who improves the human gene pool by killing or sterilizing themselves in a stupid way.
Wendy Northcutt has written several books on Darwin Awards. Three New Zealanders feature in her latest book. One of them crashed his car after using dishwashing liquid instead of brake fluid.

And that was Stick News for Monday the 23rd of October.
Kia Ora.

conversations with sarah
# 115 Is it the name of a town?

Miki and Sarah talk about the longest place name in New Zealand.
Step 1: Repeat Miki’s lines.
Step 2: Read Miki’s lines on the screen and talk to Sarah.

Miki Can you say the longest place name in New Zealand?

Sarah Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateapokaiwhenuakitanatahu

Miki Wow. Is it the name of a town?

Sarah No, it’s the name of a hill.

Miki What does it mean?

Sarah Something about a man called Taumata who swallowed mountains.

Miki Do people always say the whole name?

Sarah No. They shorten it to Taumata.

Notes

Music on the show used with permission from jamendo.com

Today's questionanswer music:
Artist: fukufuku
Album: self-aaa
Track: solitude
site
music at jamendo

Darwin awards.
Today's news